Mission: Zhu's Hope, Feros, Attican Beta Cluster
by Nosaki 'Halfbreed' Shulon
Summary: Commander Shepard and crew arrive at Feros to find surviving colonists being attacked by geth forces. Before long they find another force hoping that they will stop the geth attacks. But what does this force want after the geth are gone?
1. Chapter 1

_We'll, here is the next installment in this series. I did not plan on it taking this long to get this out there, but once i get a 'groove' going, sort of speak, these should come out a bit more regularly, whether in chapters or in short stories or even in the next story installment. _

_The main purpose behind this chapter is to introduce how the 'Ground Team' (referenced in the early part of the chapter) will receive upgrades, new gear and armor. I believe this should make for an acceptable explanation for that. I would appreciate some feedback on it so that i can know whether i should rewrite it for something else that would make more sense in the plot._

_Stories to read before this one (in order):_

_Mass Effect: Commander Shulon Shepard_

_Leaving the Citadel_

_As always, i hope you enjoy!_

* * *

The SSV Normandy was nearly 8 hours away from arriving at its first destination: Feros, and its human colony, Zhu's Hope, located in the Attican Beta Cluster. The colony, founded by the ExoGeni Corporation, had dropped out of contact some time ago after reporting that Geth were attacking. Unfortunately, as of yet, no one had been sent to investigate this report and lack of contact afterwards. But it was because of the one report of geth that the Normandy, and its crew, was going there now.

"_We're about 8 hours out, Commander. Feros is in sight_," Joker said over the ships intercom, specifically the Captain's Cabin, where Spectre Agent Commander Shepard was located.

After Shepard had taken time to settle into the Captain's Cabin, he had been researching the different races that now were included in his crew, which included a krogan, a turian and a quarian. He had taken the time to look up all of the basic information on each species, feeling it would be better to know a bit about their people in general before working along side them on their mission to stop Saren. He had also taken the time to go through the ship's inventory, such as basic supplies as well as weaponry and armor, making sure to add the gear that he had been collecting since the mission on Eden Prime to the inventory list.

Truthfully, that had mostly been all he had been doing since the Normandy departed the Citadel. The time he had taken to settle into his new quarters had only lasted 5 to 10 minutes before he had given up and began to work. Shepard still found it hard to get used to the large space that he now called his own, being the Captain's Cabin. He even had trouble attempting to sleep in the bed that was big enough for two, so much trouble that he eventually left his room, found an empty sleeper pod and slept in it. When he had woken up and left the pod, he found Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko at his station next to the pods giving him a rather odd look. Shepard's explanation caused the biotic soldier to chuckle a bit before saying he would try to keep a pod open on the sleeping schedule for a week or two to help Shepard out.

Without looking up from his screen, Shepard replied, "Understood, Joker. Have Alenko and our three alien guests meet me in the cargo bay at the weapons lockers. Make sure Williams knows we're coming and that she is going to be included."

"_Aye aye, Commander, I'll let them know_," Joker said, shutting off the intercom.

Shepard finished what he was doing, saved what was left and logged off of his terminal. Standing, he stretched a bit, popping his back a couple times, and then headed for the door to his room. As he walked straight, heading towards the elevator, he looked to his left to see the mess hall with a few of the crew sitting there chatting and eating. Beyond that he noticed the med-bay, with its doors closing shut, probably from someone having just gone in. In fact it was from someone who had just come out, as Shepard found out when he turned the corner and found Alenko waiting for him at the open door of the elevator that would take them down to the cargo bay and engineering level.

"Everything alright, Lieutenant?" Shepard asked, referring to him having come out of med-bay.

Nodding a bit, pressing the button to take them to the lower level of the ship, Alenko replied, "Yes, sir, just having a word with Dr. Chakwas. You been able to get any sleep in your new quarters yet?"

Shepard laughed a bit before he replied, "Not yet. It'll take me a while to get used to it. I'm just used to the sleeper pods and such instead of actual beds."

"Well, like I said before, I'll keep a pod open on the schedule to help you out," Alenko said, having shared a laugh when the Commander laughed.

Shepard said his thanks right as the door opened to the lower level. As they were walking out of the elevator, Shepard saw that everyone had made it to the weapons lockers: Wrex, the krogan, Garrus, the turian, Tali, the quarian, and Gunnery Cheif Ashley Williams, who's station was at the weapons table, right next to the lockers. She looked up as he and Alenko approached, then finished with the assault rifle she was working on and put it down so that she could pay attention to the Commander.

With everyone's eyes on him, Shepard decided to start. "First things first, I hope everyone's gotten settled in and gotten some rest. I know it may take some time to get used to the ship," he said, addressing the three non-Alliance crew, "but I also hope that your stay aboard the Normandy is not unpleasant. If you have any issues or questions, know that you can all come to me. That includes you two, as well," he nodded towards both Williams and Alenko. They all nodded in return, showing that they understood.

"Good. Now then, on to business. I sent a message to all of the crew, excluding you five, before having Joker call you down here. I will send you all an official message regarding this later, but I want to cover this now. The majority of this crew is mainly for maintaining and running the ship. While they all have had basic training, and some have had training for groundwork, that was not what they were chosen for when picked for assignment on the Normandy. That being said, I have labeled all of you as the Normandy's 'Ground Team'. You will still have your jobs on the ship, but should I have to go groundside for anything, I will be calling for some, if not all, of you to come with me."

He noticed very little shock or surprise from some of them as he said this. Wrex showed virtually no response while Garrus merely nodded his understanding, Ashley doing the same. Kaiden and Tali showed the most surprise, Kaiden raising his eyebrows a bit before nodding, Tali having shown it through her body language that she was surprised to be chosen for such a team. He imagined she might ask about it later, but it didn't look like she would now.

"Since you're going to be a part of the ground team," Shepard continued, walking through the middle of the group and towards the table where Ashley had been leaning against, "I want you all to have decent equipment, not just standard issue. That includes armor, weapons, mods of any kind and so on." He had reached the table, Ashley having stood up and stepped to the side for Shepard to get to where she was at, and picked up one of the weapons that they had found on their travels so far, this particular one being a shotgun that he had found towards the end of the mission on Eden Prime. With the weapon still in its collapsed shape, he turned around and tossed it to Wrex, who deftly caught it and looked at it, analyzing it to see what kind it was and its capabilities.

Shepard continued while Wrex looked at the gun in his hands, extending it to sight it at the wall away from the group, "Any of the weapons and armor that you find in the inventory you are all welcomed to. But you will need to trade the weapon you already have for it and log it in with whoever is in charge of weapons inventory. For example, if you want that shotgun, Wrex," said krogan looked up from the shotgun he had just collapsed, "all you need to do is hand over your other shotgun to Williams, since she is on duty, and she will log it into the inventory. Then it's yours." The krogan nodded his understanding, keeping a hold of the shotgun with the intention to do just that.

"Mods will be up for grabs, so long as you check in with the soldier on duty. Said soldier can even install the mods, should you want them to," Shepard said, stopping when Garrus lifted his hand a bit to get his attention.

Shepard nodded to the turian, who asked, "Uh… 'up for grabs', Commander?"

"Sorry, I mean if you want it, you can have it. We've already found a number of them since the mission on Eden Prime, so I don't think we'll have a problem with running out. Also, if you don't see anything here that you need, we have a requisitions officer onboard who might be able to help. He is stationed in the back corner over there," Shepard pointed to the corner behind where the Mako was, right next to one of the doors leading towards the Engineering area. The man standing there had his back to them while he went over a datapad, presumably for his own inventory. "I've already talked with him and he said he would be more than happy to show any of you his stock, but his gear has a price tag since he doesn't get all of it from the Alliance."

When they all looked back around at him, he asked, "Any questions so far?"

This time it was Tali who partially raised her hand, asking, "Commander, are you sure about us just taking the equipment we need? I mean, the shotgun you threw to Wrex is an expensive model, and-"

Shepard cut her off with a hand held up, saying, "I'm not going to ask either of you to pay for newer or better equipment if we have it to spare. We are going to be the ones out in the field, and I'd rather have my team with better equipment than the basics. The way I see it, the better armor you have, the higher the chance of you staying alive to help keep the person next to you alive as well. Not to mention this equipment here is stuff we found, so it's not like we're losing money by just giving it to you. Now I will say this," Shepard said, catching all their attention again, "if there's stuff not getting used, I will eventually sell it to our requisitions officer. Usually I will let everyone know before I do so that you can double check to see what we have before it gets sold." Tali merely nodded her head after he said this, not saying anything else.

Shepard waited for a moment to see if anyone else had any questions, but no one else spoke up. "Now that we have that out of the way, we need to discuss the upcoming mission. We are less than 7 hours away from Feros. We'll be docking at a colony called Zhu's Hope. Said colony dropped out of contact after reporting that geth were attacking. We don't know what the full situation is and I don't want to take any chances, so I want all of you ready to go by the time we get there."

"What exactly are we going to be looking for, Commander?" Ashley asked, having turned back to the table and began doing basic checks on an assault rifle, probably her own.

Shepard crossed his arms and began to pace slightly away from the group, answering, "Survivors, Chief. Our first priority is to find the colonists and ensure their safety." He turned back around and faced the entire group. "After that, we try and find out why the geth attacked in the first place. Hopefully, that will tell us something about Saren or the conduit."

"Do we have any idea what this conduit is? What it does?" Garrus spoke up, shrugging his arms out slightly.

Shepard merely shook his head, saying, "No, we don't, on both counts. But right now finding out what we can about the conduit is our best chance of finding Saren. And stopping him from bringing back the Reapers."

"I've been meaning to ask about that," Kaiden said, turning to Tali, "Do you know anything else about these Reapers? Was there anything else in that geth memory core you took?"

Tali shook her head, answering, "No, there wasn't. I tried to go through it again in hopes of find something, anything that might be able to help us. But there isn't anything else in that core except those recordings and the references that say the Reapers are some kind of synthetic gods to the geth."

Kaiden nodded as he listened to her, recalling their last meeting in Ambassador Udina's office before Shepard became a Spectre and all they had talked about there. "Maybe we'll find out more about the Reapers as well as the conduit on this mission. I'd love to find out that its just some myth or super-geth or something other than what it sounds like."

Checking an accuracy mod, Shepard said to the two, "I couldn't agree with you more, Lieutenant. But," Shepard's eyes looked down slightly, recalling the visions he received from the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime, "I don't think that's the answer we're going to find." Shepard looked back at the mod, held it up to Ashley, who nodded her understanding to record it as being used, then tossed it up and caught it, turning away from the table towards the elevator.

"Everyone's dismissed until we dock. Make sure your ready. When we get there, report in at the Galaxy Map in the CIC," Shepard called over his shoulder. He reached the elevator, took it to the upper floor and took a left, towards the med-bay. But instead of going into the med-bay, he went past the door and to the lockers on the wall next to it. He opened his personal locker and pulled out his pistol, taking it apart and installing the mod he had just taken from the weapons table. When he was done, he put the pistol back and returned to his quarters to finish the messages regarding the ground team status.

* * *

Fresh out of FTL travel speeds, the Normandy began to enter Feros' atmosphere. Once it had done that, the advanced cruiser made its way towards the space dock at Zhu's Hope, veering between new and old skyscrapers to get there. Shepard had read a small, brief info page on Feros before they arrived and it had said that Feros was nearly completely covered in ancient Prothean architecture. It was believed that the planet was once a vast Prothean city, long since abandoned by the extinct race. The human colony here had decided to build on top of what was left behind, ExoGeni funding the colony in hopes of excavating the ruins and turning a profit from the finds. No one was expecting a geth attack out here. No one was expecting Geth in the first place.

Shepard turned to his team, all of whom, with the exception of Tali, had chosen to go without their helmets. He nodded to them and headed towards the airlock, the team following him. Feeling the slight thump of the airlock connecting to the dock, the group waited for the airlock to equalize the pressure. As they stepped out and looked to the right, Shepard saw a dark skinned man standing there, waiting for them. Shepard turned to the group and said, "Alright everyone, seems like things may not be as bad as we thought. Since this is a human colony, Williams, Tali and I will take the lead. Alenko," said soldier stood just a bit straighter, "I want you to stay with Garrus and Wrex for now, in case we get split up. This way we can use Alliance radio channels, and both groups have three in each. Understood?"

Everyone nodded their consent and Shepard turned and walked towards the man waiting for them with Williams and Tali right behind him, Alenko, Garrus and Wrex waiting a bit before following. As they approached the man, he said, "We saw your ship. Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately."

"Who's Fai Dan?" Shepard asked.

"He's our leader. He needs your help to prepare for the geth. They're making another push." So the geth have attacked, are attacking. Shepard was already glad that he had decided to take the entire team, especially if the geth were making full blown assaults. The man continued, saying, "Please, up the stairs and past the freighter."

"Commander!" Tali shouted suddenly, right as the sounds of a projectile was heard. The entire group moved into cover with the only exception being the man that had greeted them, as he had been the target of the projectile, a carnage shot, that they had heard.

Shepard found himself against the corner stone piece with Tali to his left and Ashley to his right, across the firing path against a piece of cargo. Looking past Tali, he saw that the other three were crouched against the low wall of the dock. The entire group had their weapons out: Shepard, his pistol, Ashley, her assault rifle, Tali, her shotgun, Wrex and Kaiden with their own assult rifles and Garrus with his sniper rifle. The group that had assault rifles were giving suppressive fire while the others were trying to merely get a shot in with what they had.

Shepard called out, "Garrus! What's their head count?"

The former C-Sec officer did a quick sweep with his sniper rifle while Wrex and Kaiden gave him suppressive fire before he ducked back behind cover. "I count six along the walkway, but there may be more past that doorway around the corner!"

Shepard muttered to himself, "I'll bet there are," then aloud he said, "Kaiden! You guys provide support. We'll take point. Don't move up unless we clear you."

"Aye aye, Commander. Ready when you are," was his reply and was all that Shepard needed to hear. Just as he signaled Ashley to provide cover fire, he heard Garrus say, "Scoped and dropped," and walked out in a crouch towards the walkway, seeing the geth Garrus had shot fall, and another fall to Ashley's cover fire with her assault rifle. He fired a few rounds towards another that was in cover at the corner to the right, forcing it out of cover. He continued to fire at it, but the geth's assault rifle was tearing into his shields faster than his pistol was tearing into its own. Just before Shepard had ran out of shields, Tali stepped up from her position behind him and fired her shotgun at the geth three times, the geth falling by the second one.

Both Shepard and Tali stayed to the right, against the low barrier facing the remaining geth. Looking back, they saw Ashley make her way towards them, staying to the right as well.

"Alenko?" Shepard asked over the radio.

He got a quick reply, "One more down sir, two more t- hold it. Make that three more. One just came out of the doorway."

"Do we have any cover?"

"A few cargo crates and our cover fire is all," was Kaiden's reply. Shepard looked to the women behind him and signaled them to be ready. At their nod, Shepard moved to the left low wall, using his pistol to cover the corner the women now waited next to. Seeing nothing at first, Shepard nodded to the two and charged out, sweeping from left to right and firing his pistol at any geth that he saw until he made it to the far crate for cover, next to the wall. As soon as he had left cover, Tali and Ashley had as well, Tali giving the female marine cover with her shotgun, staying next to the corner they were just at while Ashley found new cover. When she had, both she and Tali focused their fire on one geth, taking it out.

Shepard looked over his own cover and saw two geth standing, another one waiting behind the doorway, and a fourth to the right, near a wall and out of sight of Kaiden's group. Just as he was going back behind his cover, he saw a red light, leading to the direction of Ashley and Tali, appear from the geth against the wall. _A sniper!_ he thought. Knowing he didn't have much time to warn them, Shepard charged his biotics, stepped out from cover and threw the sniper back against the wall. Shepard immediately began taking fire and was forced back into cover.

From his right, he overheard Ashley say, "Damn, their shields are tough."

Tali then said, "I might be able to do something about them. Give me a moment."

Curious, Shepard asked, "What are you doing, Tali?"

Tapping on her omni-tool, she replied, "I'm going to try and overload their shields. It may only last a moment before they begin to recharge, but it should buy you two enough time to take them out."

"Can you do it on demand or do you have to signal us?" Shepard asked, working a plan.

She seemed to have understood why he asked, because she said, "I'm almost… ready. Just give the word, Commander."

"Now!" Shepard shouted, he and Ashley both stepping out of cover and firing on the Geth. Both of them saw a small flash of blue light, a sign that they both guessed was their shields overloading.

Shepard had taken a deep breath just before coming out of cover, focusing on his accuracy and the geth in front of him. Seeing one of the closer geth to his right start jerking, he looked to his left, firing at the geth behind the doorway in rapid succession. When that geth fell out of cover, he moved to the center one, hitting it in critical areas with every shot, then moved over and fired one last shot into the head of the one Ashley had been firing at.

Not seeing any more movement, Shepard blinked and shook his head a bit, giving the all clear to Kaiden's group. Looking to his right, he found Tali walking towards him, her shotgun still ready, and Ashley standing up and standing next to him as well. He nodded to them, and they nodded back, saying they were good. Shepard turned back towards the doorway that the geth had been coming out of, heading towards it and the stairs behind it. Right as they reached the doorway, Shepard saw movement to his right and remembered the geth sniper he had used his biotics on. Before he could turn and shoot his pistol at it, he heard a shotgun go off next to him. The geth sputtered and then went silent, no longer moving. Turning to his right, Shepard saw Tali lower her shotgun. He once again nodded to her, this time in thanks, and then moved on through the door.

As he stepped through the doorway that led to the stairs, Shepard heard some kind of movement. He immediately brought up his pistol at the ready position, his team doing the same. Carefully walking in, Shepard swept the room with his gun, checking the corners and peering up the stairs. When he looked up the center space between the stairs, he saw something white suddenly jump towards the opposite wall. Moving in to look for it, Shepard saw another in mid-jump, only this time he noticed the things head. Its curved head with a light bulb where the face should be. More Geth.

The group began to fire at them, hardly being able to hit them because of their continuous jumping. Shepard took cover at the small wall at the side of the stairs, turning towards Tali, asking loudly over the gun fire, "What the hell are those things?"

"I can't be sure, but I believe they are called Stalkers. There is another model like them that act like snipers, but I'm pretty sure that these are not sniper platforms," she replied, having to stand behind a pillar built into the stairs to avoid the supposed geth stalkers fire.

Ashley spoke up when she finished, also crouching in cover, "Yeah, I'd have to agree with you on that."

Just past them, at the doorway, Shepard saw Kaiden, Garrus and Wrex walk in, weapons ready. He also noticed that Kaiden was slightly glowing blue. As he got ready to shoot at whichever stalker was going to be hit with the Lieutenant's biotics, Shepard heard something make contact with the wall to his right, at the turning area of the stairs. He quickly turned and pointed his pistol at the stalker that was 'staring' right at him. Right before the stalker could fire, Shepard saw a blue light slam it back against the wall and fell off of its perch. He fired at it, piercing it with holes before it hit the ground. Turning back around, he saw Wrex let off a Carnage shot at the last geth, hitting it at its next jump-target and incinerating it.

Checking and clearing the area, Shepard asked the group, "Is everyone alright?"

Everyone's response was positive, Wrex's being, "Those things were barely a nuisance."

Shepard looked at Kaiden, saying, "Thanks for that push on that geth. If it didn't get a shot or two in, then it might have just jumped away again."

"Anytime, sir," was Kaiden's reply.

"Alright everyone," Shepard said to everyone now, "same groups. Lets see if we can find those colonists."

The two groups make their way up the stairs, all of their weapons at the ready position in case of any other geth ambushes or traps. After going up about two or three flights of stairs, they found a small hallway to the right, with a door at the end, sunlight coming out of it. Shepard held up a hand, telling everyone to slow down. From his position at the end of the hallway, he heard voices talking. He was immediately put at ease, knowing that geth didn't talk, at least not with words.

Deciding to play it safe, he called out while still away from the door, saying, "Friendlies coming around the corner. Check your fire!"

The voices stopped as soon as he had spoken up, but when he was done, there was only a short pause before a woman called out, "We hear you! Come on through!"

Shepard turned around at pointed at both Tali and Ashley, motioning them to come forward. He then turned back around, put up his pistol and walked forward, hands held out for the people at the doorway to see, saying, "Be advised, I have five others coming behind me, three are non-human."

He was walking though the doorway as he finished and was now staring at three humans who were holding lowered assault rifles. The woman to his left, the one that had called out a response to him, nodded her head to show she understood what he had said. Just after he walked through, Tali and Ashley walked up to be seen, their own guns lowered. Shepard used his comm. to radio Kaiden and the other two, telling them to come on through. When they were all through the door and behind the barriers that the three guards were using, they all stared at what was left of Zhu's Hope. There were a handful of colonists here or three, trying to do what they could to keep the place together against the geth onslaught.

* * *

_Well, how is that for the first chapter? I am finding that my biggest challenge is the fight scenes. After having read plenty of other works by other people, i feel as though my own fight scenes are lacking something, but i am honestly not sure what._

_As i said at the beginning, i do hope that you enjoyed this. I honestly have no clue how long this particular story in the series will be, though i honestly believe that this will be the longest of the series. I will be working on this as fast as possible, but with college and work and other things, it may still be a week or two. _

_Just like always, feel free to comment about anything, whether it be good or bad. _

_-halfbreed_


	2. Chapter 2

_Well, here is chapter two. This one took me a bit of time, but i think it works pretty well. Still not completely comfortable with my fight scenes, but for now its the best i can do. if any of you have any advise for me, i would greatly appreciate it. _

_Just one side note: Please look at the poll on my profile page. i have two that i could use some feedback on, but the main one is currently posted on my profile. Thanks!_

_Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

They had walked through Zhu's Hope, or what was left of it, for a while now. They had found a few people doing certain jobs that certain members of the group could help with. There was a blonde woman who was working at a monitoring station next to some rather large pipes. She had barely given Shepard the time of day when he tried to speak to her, merely saying she was trying to get the colony's water supply going again and that they should go speak with Fai Dan, the apparent leader of the survivors. Kaiden offered his help, with the Commander's permission, having experience with certain technologies of this sort. She accepted, though she was far from thankful, having him check along the pipes for any damages while she worked the terminal.

As they walked away they found another woman working on what appeared to be a power generator. When she turned around to see who was walking by, Shepard decided to ask if she needed any help. They found her to be more welcoming, if a bit gruff, than the previous woman. Hearing that the generator needed new power nodes, a model that the Normandy wouldn't have, Shepard agreed to keep and eye out for any as he tried to help with the Geth attacks. Before they left, moving deeper into the colony, Tali said that she might be able to help the woman with making the generator use what was left of the power it had been using. It had taken some persuasion from Tali to convince the woman that it was possible before she accepted the help.

They began walking through part of an apparently disabled freighter that some of the survivors were using as cover and a medical station when they met a man who explained the food shortages that the colony would suffer if the attacks kept up. When the man mentioned that they could hunt varren for their meat, Garrus spoke up, saying he was a good shot and might be able to help with the hunting. Shepard explained to the man that Garrus could help while he went to see Fai Dan, as everyone else in the colony had been telling him to do.

With the group of three, Shepard, Wrex and Ashley, they walked out of the freighter and found two people, a woman in basic armor and carrying an assault rifle, and a man whom Shepard assumed to be Fai Dan. The man noticed them approaching and said, "Ah, Commander! My name is Fai Dan. I'm glad they finally sent someone to help us."

The woman next to him spoke up with obvious irritation, "You're a bit late, aren't you?"

"Arcelia!" Fai Dan whispered to her, then turned back to the Commander, saying, "Sorry, Commander. We've all been a bit on edge since-"

"Watch out!" the woman, now known as Arcelia, shouted after having looked over her shoulder. Shepard looked in the same direction as she shouted, seeing multiple geth coming from a door behind her and Fai Dan. "We've got geth in the tower!"

Shepard and his team immediately got out their own weapons and began firing into the doorway to keep the geth from pushing forward. This time, Shepard had gotten out his assault rifle, taking cover at the corner where Fai Dan and Arcelia were behind him. He noticed Ashley had done the same, taking cover behind a barricade a little ways back from the door and that Wrex had out his shotgun and was positioned right at the door, firing at any geth close enough.

When Shepard's assault rifle overheated, he turned towards Fai Dan and Arcelia, saying, "You two stay here. I'll have one of my team come here and help cover the door. We'll go in and clear the tower."

Without waiting for a response, Shepard called Garrus on the radio, knowing that he was closest. "Garrus! Come over and meet up with Fai Dan at my current location. Cover this door and don't let any geth through! Wrex, Williams and I are going past it towards the tower to try and clear these things out of it."

"Understood, Shepard. I'm on my way," Garrus said over the radio.

Shepard prepped a grenade and looked to his two teammates, saying, "When this thing goes off, Wrex, take point. Williams and I are right behind you."

Saying they understood, Shepard leaned out and threw the grenade into the door. Right after it went off, Shepard ran towards the door, firing at any geth he could aim at from around the big krogan in front of him. After the first three went down, Shepard noticed another group of geth charging down the stairs. Both Ashley and Shepard took cover to the left, at a space that would have lead under the stairs, while Wrex merely backed up towards where they were, standing in the open and firing his shotgun.

"Wrex, get into cover!" Shepard called out while firing his assault rifle.

"No room, in case you didn't notice," Wrex said, prepping and firing a Carnage shot, taking out another geth and pushing another back with the blast, "I can take the hits, Shepard. Also," Shepard noticed Wrex suddenly was glowing blue from biotics. When the initial light faded, Wrex remained incased in a slightl blue glow. A biotic trick that Shepard had hoped to learn one day, a biotic barrier. Wrex looked at the two humans in cover for only a brief second, Shepard swearing he saw the krogan smirk, and continued what he had started to say, "I got this."

Shepard smirked a bit himself and leaned out of cover, firing and taking out the shields of two geth. Said geth quickly fell to Wrex's shotgun. Shepard felt Ashley moving away from cover and stepping around Shepard and Wrex, firing her own assault rifle at the remaining geth. After another few moments of gunfire, the geth coming down the stairs were all down. Once Shepard had made sure Wrex's barrier had held up to the hits he had taken, he took point with Ashley behind him and Wrex bringing up the back.

When they reached the top of the stairs, the found a lone colonist behind a stone piece of a broken pillar. Before they could get to his cover to help him, however, a geth shot him from the doorway to the right, across from the cover. Shepard immediately jumped over the piece of pillar, checking the man's pulse while Ashley and Wrex stayed in cover next to the door. Shepard looked to them and shook his head negative, staying in cover to avoid the geth fire now directed at him.

Thinking on how to quickly deal with the multiple geth past the door without any of them getting shot through their shields, Shepard put away his assault rifle and brought out his pistol. After a moment, Shepard called out, "Williams, when I say 'go' I want you to provide suppressive fire. Wrex, cut across the door and cover the other side. I'll fire into the center." He heard Ashley say, "You got it, Commander." Taking a quick breath, Shepard said, "Go!"

Giving a moment for Wrex to cross the doorway, Shepard leaned over his cover and found three geth, one of them heading towards the right of the door. He aimed at the first geth and fired two rounds into its head, three into its chest plate. He moved to the next one, again hitting it in every critical area without a single miss. But by this time, his shields were almost down and he had to go back into cover. He heard a type of roar that he could only assume was Wrex just before a loud bang of something impacting something else.

"All clear, Commander," he heard Wrex say, sounding out of breath. Shepard stood up from his cover and noticed Ashley standing next to the door and Wrex on the other side of it, stepping away from a dark corner where Shepard could only just make out the outline of a geth platform slumped against the wall it was slammed against.

Shepard walked through the door and looked to his left, noticing another door and a hallway just to the right of that. He turned to the team and said, "Lets check and clear the rest of this area."

Wrex nodded, but Ashley spoke up, asking, "Commander, how do you do that?"

He looked at her for a second before asking, "Do what, Chief?"

"You never missed a shot on those geth just now. I mean, I've heard of practice in the gun range, but I've never heard of that good a shot," she said, indicating Shepard's accuracy with his pistol.

Finally realizing what she was asking, Shepard said, "It's a focusing trick I learned early on with the Alliance. My instructors said I was a natural with handguns and had me put into advanced training programs. Even got to toy around with some, at the time, prototype thermal clip guns," he finished with a smirk, turning towards the door ahead of them.

"Thermal cli-" Ashley started before moving to follow her Commander, "You got to shoot thermal clip weaponry during the test phase? How'd you pull that off?"

"Guess I impressed someone on the range," Shepard said nonchalantly with a shrug, but unable to take the smirk off of his face at his luck and the Chief's reaction.

As they reached the door, Shepard heard the sounds of geth moving about in the next room and pulled out his shotgun. He held up his hand for Wrex and Ashley to stay behind while he looked along the curved wall of the room. He found a few broken slabs of stone to take cover behind and, moving closer as quietly as he could, he noticed a ramp, leading to a raised area in the curved room. He also noticed a large number of geth. Luckily, they hadn't noticed them yet.

Shepard stepped back into cover against the curved wall, thinking of any way to help them out in this situation. While at first he was only hoping to keep things in their favor, he noticed Wrex trying to get his attention from the corner of his vision. When he looked at him, Wrex pointed behind Shepard in an upward angle. Shepard looked up behind him and noticed what Wrex was trying to tell him: there was a geth drop-ship currently resting on top of a hole in the roof of the room they were in.

_That's just great,_ Shepard thought, _That is going to complicate things._

Shepard made note of the two grenades he had left. He thought of his abilities as well as the abilities of his current team, or at least the abilities that he knew of. He took another quick glance at the soon to be battlefield and at the geth that he could see. He took all of this in and thought of the best way to handle the problem. After a moment, Shepard quietly went back to Ashley and Wrex.

"Williams, how good are you with a sniper?" Shepard asked in a whisper.

She thought for a second before answering, "I'm not first in line for special ops, but I'm not picked last either."

Shepard nodded, saying, "Good enough. Here's the plan: Wrex and I will use our Carnage attacks with our shotguns and take out the closest Geth while you, Williams, will use your assault rifle on any other geth nearby. Our goal," Shepard said, pointing towards direction of the ramp that lead to higher ground, "is that ramp and any cover that's at the top of it. When we get there," Shepard turned back to Ashley, "I want you do get out your sniper rifle and take out any and all geth you can. Wrex and I will cover you. Wrex," said krogan looked right back at the Commander, "When we get there, I want you to use your assault rifle for suppressive fire. I'll stay with my shotgun for any geth that get too close. You got it?"

Wrex responded, "Got it, Commander," and when Shepard looked at Williams, she nodded herself, gripping her assault rifle. Shepard made his way back to where he was before, Wrex and Williams right behind him. Shepard prepped his shotgun for a Carnage shot and then held up three fingers. Then two. Then one.

Shepard stepped out from their cover and fired his Carnage shot at the first and closest geth to them. Said geth quickly fell to the ground, nearly blown in half. As Williams began firing her assault rifle, Shepard heard another Carnage shot go off and saw another geth fall. The three of them made their way to the ramp, shooting at the geth and doing their best not to take too many hits from the geth's return fire.

When they made it up the ramp, Shepard took a quick glance and saw that they had two slabs of stone to use as cover that would set them near the back wall. Turning back around, Shepard had to use a biotic throw on a geth that was walking towards them while firing. His throw pushed it back against the geth behind it, distracting the pair enough to let the group get into their cover. Shepard found himself staying behind his cover on the left by the wall in order for his shields to recharge while Wrex merely put up a biotic barrier and kept firing his shotgun. Looking over to his right, Shepard saw that Ashley now had her sniper rifle out and was preparing herself to use it.

When his shields had recharged, Shepard prepped his shotgun to fire another Carnage shot. He called out, "Wrex!" right as he popped out and fired at the closest geth, giving Wrex the time he needed to change from his shotgun to his assault rifle. As he began firing, Wrex suddenly looked right and began firing at the lower section of the room. He then backed up, blocking Ashley's aim for a second, muttering, "Shit. Got a destroyer trying to flank us!" Wrex finally made it back to where Shepard was in cover, taking cover himself while Shepard stood up and aimed his shotgun at the ramp, waiting for the destroyer to make its way up.

Thankfully, their current setup was ideal for the situation. While Wrex needed time for his shields to recharge, Ashley was able to distract or take down any geth that might take advantage of Shepard's currently exposed position. As soon as the destroyer made its way up the ramp, it too started to take repetitive shots from Shepard's shotgun. After it took cover at the ramp, Shepard took cover as well, Wrex taking his place and taking out the destroyer as soon as it leaned back out of cover.

Before the destroyer even hit the ground, the group heard what sounded like crashes towards the other end of the room. Shepard peeked over his cover and saw that those crashes were the geth drop-ship launching more of its kind into the room. Shepard swore mentally before charging yet another Carnage shot and took aim at another destroyer that was on the upper section, luckily taking it out before it got any closer. Back in cover, Shepard thought quickly of the situation, trying to think of a better way to handle things.

"Sniper to the right!" Ashley shouted. Shepard reached up and pulled Wrex down into cover. A second later, a smoke trail from a sniper rifle appeared where Wrex had been standing. The krogan turned around and faced Shepard, saying, "There's still a good many left. Got a plan?"

"Still working on it," Shepard replied as he heard Ashley next to them, saying, "Sniper's down."

Leaning forward to look around Wrex, Shepard said, "Check for any other snipers. Wrex," he said, leaning back and handing the krogan one of his grenades, "Throw this at the largest group that you see when I give the signal."

Shepard then put away his shotgun and pulled out his pistol. He heard Ashley say, "Found one more sniper, but I got it covered." He waited until he heard her fire her own sniper before giving Wrex the signal. As soon as Wrex moved to throw the grenade, Shepard took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Exhaling, Shepard stood up and fired at any geth he saw, never missing a target. The grenade Wrex threw took out one geth and two others shields. Shepard quickly shot the two of these first. He then saw another smoke trail of a sniper and found the geth Ashley had destroyed. Nearby were two others. Shepard had shot down one of them before his shields going down brought him out of focus.

Back in cover, he looked and found Wrex being knocked over onto his back by a geth destroyer that had snuck up on their flank and was now right in front of them. Thinking fast, Shepard held tight onto his pistol while running into the tall and dark geth, his body glowing blue with biotics. He managed to knock the geth onto the ground while falling on top of it. Shepard grabbed the geth's gun with his left hand and pushed it to the side, trying to get it out of the synthetics grip while at the same time bringing his right hand, with his pistol, to aim point blank at the geth's upper body. As he continued to fire, the geth twitched, letting go of the gun Shepard was trying to push away. Shepard heard the sound of his gun overheating and stood up from the barely-moving destroyer. Looking at its 'face', Shepard's fist went blue with biotics one last time as he punched the still glowing face-light, shattering it.

Hearing a sound, Shepard looked up to see the geth drop-ship flying away from the building. He turned around and found Wrex standing up and Ashley scoping the room with her sniper to confirm the room was clear. When she was sure, she said, "All clear, Commander. We should probably report to Fai Dan, let him know."

Shepard nodded to her and said, "Lets check and make sure they didn't leave behind any surprises, then we'll head back. Check the far end, Chief."

She nodded and walked towards the far end of the room, switching her sniper rifle for her assault rifle. Shepard walked towards Wrex and asked, "You alright?"

"It'll take more than a punch from a geth to bring me down," Wrex said with a nod.

Shepard merely smirked, saying, "So that wasn't you I saw getting up from the ground just now?"

Wrex gave him an amused grunt before walking past him. Shepard merely shook his head before turning round himself to see if Ashley had found anything.

* * *

_No real breaks in this chapter, but i feel pretty comfortable about it. What about you?_

_I personally i like the idea of introducing thermal clip weaponry in this way. For some, in order to write out this story, its difficult to think of a way to explain the change from unlimited ammo to thermal clips. I plan to have an explanation of how thermal clips are better than unlimited ammo later, but for now this just kinda introduces that idea. What do you think?_

_As always, Comment about anything, i dont care if its a flame or a thumbs up. Just getting others input would be nice._

_until next time!_

_-halfbreed_


	3. Chapter 3

_Well, I finally got this done. After look at the final number of words in this chapter, I think it was about the same amount as my last chapters, but this felt SO much longer... I plan to shorten up these chapters by at least a thousand words. I think that will be better for me with my current schedule and responsibilities. Which will mean, hopefully, faster updates._

_Anyway, you didn't want to read a large chapter of Author's Notes, so on to the story. Please comment and let me know of any mistakes needing to be fixed, or just your opinions!_

* * *

"The tower is secure. Thanks to you, Commander," Fai Dan said. Shepard, Ashley and Wrex had just made it back to where the survivors were held up. They had found some gear in the tower they had just cleared of geth and had radioed Garrus to let him know that they were on their way back, so as to not get shot when they came back through the door.

Nodding to Fai Dan, Shepard motioned to the random members of his Ground Team behind him and said, "Couldn't have done it without my crew. We're just glad your colony is safe."

"I appreciate your concern as well as you and your crew's efforts against the geth," Fai Dan started, almost sounding like he was going to give a slight speech before asking something else.

He didn't get the chance to, though, as Arcelia said, "They may have been slowed down, but they'll be back. They always come back."

Sadly, Shepard knew this was true. So long as there were more geth around, they would look for survivors. But on that thought, why were the geth there to begin with? When they attacked Eden Prime, it was to get the Prothean beacon. Was there something like that here?

"What are the geth looking for, anyways?" Shepard asked the two in front of him.

Fai Dan shrugged with a frown on his face, saying, " We don't know what they're after. They came, they attacked us. That's all we know. Their main base is at Exogeni headquarters. A good place to start looking if you want answers."

"What's Exogeni?" Shepard asked, thinking the name sounded familiar.

Arcelia said, "It's the company most of us worked for before the attack. They fund this colony. The skyway leads directly to Exogeni headquarters. You can't miss it."

"Of course," Fai Dan spoke up, "there's an army of geth between here and there."

Shepard gave a rueful smile and a confident shrug, saying, "I didn't expect this would be easy."

Fai Dan smiled at the Commanders response, saying, "Then, maybe I can get this colony operational again."

"What do you need done to get this place back on its feet," Shepard asked.

The first to speak, Arcelia said, "We need those geth destroyed."

"Arcelia's right," Fai Dan said. "There are still geth in the tunnels. We also have more mundane problems like food water and power. I'm not sure where we stand on those matters. You should talk to the people overseeing them."

After asking for a few more details, Shepard found that the people in charge of those problems were the people he had ran into on his way to Fai Dan, the same people he left some of his crew with. When he was done talking to Fai Dan about the colony, he radioed his team to meet up at one corner of the colony where there was a walkway of sorts, somewhere that no one else was hanging around.

The six of them were in varying positions on the walkway while they talked. Garrus had his assault rifle out, standing at the edge of the group closest to the door that he had guarded earlier almost as though he was still guarding it, if his glancing towards the door every now and then was any indicator. Kaiden was standing a few feet from him, leaning on the side of a chunk of stone that was there with his arms by his side. Wrex was on the other side of the two, closest to the other end of the walkway, leaning against his own chunk of stone and holding his shotgun. His new shotgun, the one he had traded for back on the Normandy. Tali was about halfway between Wrex and Kaiden, with her back towards the colony, facing Shepard. She was shifting her weight from one leg to the other, a nervous habit, Shepard guessed. Ashley was opposite her, leaning against the opposite railing of the walkway with her arms crossed. She was also facing Shepard, just like everyone else.

Shepard himself was in the middle of the group, pacing back and forth while the different members of the team explained what they learned from the colonists that they worked with. With each of them having been helping a different colonist with different responsibilities, Shepard now had a rather clear view of what the situation in Zhu's Hope really was. Food, water, power and even more geth in the tunnels just waiting to attack. Fortunately, however, it seemed that almost all of those problems could be fixed from the same area: the tunnels.

According to Kaiden, the main water valves for this part of the colony, valves that were currently deactivated, were located in the same tunnels that the geth were supposed to be. In order for the colony to receive water, those valves needed to be turned back on. As to the food shortages, Garrus informed him that the man he talked to earlier said the colonists could hunt and eat varren until the attacks stopped, but an alpha varren was too much of a problem as it was stronger and more resistant to pain than the regular varren. As far as the man could tell, he told Garrus that the alpha varren was living down in the tunnels.

Sadly, that seemed as far as they would be able to go to help. Tali informed him that she was able to get the generators to work for a short while, much to the surprise of the woman she had been working with, but they wouldn't last long until they got a hold of some useable power cells. Before Shepard could ask, Tali told him that she had checked to see if the Normandy's power cells would work, or if she could put together some kind of adaptor to make them work, but there was no way to make it work. There were too many factors involved and a lot of them that Tali tried to explain went straight over Shepard's head, making him take her word for it. Unless they found any during their mission, the colony would have to wait before they could get power back up and running.

Shepard continued to pace for a few moments in silence when everyone had finished briefing him. They needed a plan. Basic missions would require squads of three people. He had already broken that protocol with this mission so far and there were still a lot of unknowns to deal with. Not to mention Zhu's Hope still needed some kind of protection. He could split the group into two, but if there was too much to handle in the tunnels then they would be in trouble. _Alright, God, what do we need to do?_ Shepard thought while touching a spot at the center of his chest. He had only done that for a moment, but a few of the people around took notice, though rather dismissively.

Shepard looked up from staring at the ground and stopped pacing. Looking to different members of the team, he began explaining his plan, "Alright, guys, here's what we'll do. There's a lot we have to do, so we're going to split up. Standard team setups, two teams of three. Alenko," Shepard looked at said Lieutenant, "You'll be in charge of one team. Your job is to keep Zhu's Hope secure. I'll take the other team down into the tunnels. If we run into any trouble down there, I'll call you for backup."

Kaiden nodded his understanding, stood up and asked, "Who's on what team, sir?"

Thinking for second, Shepard said, "Geth and rabid varren, transmitters and water control valves. I'll take Wrex and Tali with me. Williams and Garrus will stay with you to keep the colony secure." When Kaiden nodded, Shepard turned to the rest of them and asked, "Any questions?"

"Commander, there is one thing," Garrus said, stepping forward. Shepard motioned for him to continue. "After I found out about the alpha varren, I walked around the colony and asked about this place. I don't know what it is, but something seems… off."

Before Shepard could ask what he meant, Tali spoke up and said, "I noticed the same thing. When I spoke with a couple in one of the rooms on the freighter, the both seemed… well, 'off' somehow. The woman seemed very weak and was having to lie down, even though she had no obvious injury, and the man had this nervous twitch when he spoke to me."

Shepard looked at Kaiden and asked, "Did you notice anything?"

"As a matter of fact, I did," Alenko said, thinking about it for a moment. "I hardly ever got a straight answer from anyone regarding the colony. They always told me to talk to Fai Dan. And there's a woman working at a terminal that's running some kind of diagnostics on the freighter, but it was like she couldn't tell me what it was. Like Garrus said, something just seems off with the colonists."

Shepard nodded and thought for another second before saying, "If that's the case, lets try to find out what is going on. While you're here, see if you can find anything out. Williams," Shepard said, turning around and facing the woman who was now standing at attention, "You'll have fresh eyes on this, so I want you to focus on trying to figure out if something out of the ordinary is going on. Alenko and Garrus will do the same, but their primary focus will be on protecting the colony and the colonists." Williams nodded and said, "Yes sir." When that was done, the group split up. Shepard's team left back through the doorway that they had went through before while Kaiden and his team stayed behind, Garrus once again watching the door.

They took the right hallway instead of straight, passing the room that Shepard, Williams and Wrex had gone into before, passed an elevator that was supposed to lead to the skyway and down the stairs at the end of the hall. Wrex still had his shotgun out while both Shepard and Tali had out their pistols. They had been walking in basic formation, the one of them checking corners with their weapons while signing for the others to move up when it was clear. So far, it was quiet. No geth in sight and no sounds of close gunfire. After two flights of stairs, all three of them were nervous and on edge. If Geth were in the tunnels, they should have encountered some by now.

Tali was in front, checking the floor between flights of stairs. She looked to Shepard, who nodded and moved ahead to check the next set of stairs. Before he could though, the sounds of gunfire was heard, as well as the sounds of fast paced footsteps. Moving quickly, Shepard looked down the stairs to see a woman running towards them.

When she made eye contact, she cried out, "Oh God, they're everywhere-"

Shepard was about to call out to her when a geth drone suddenly shot at her, followed shortly by a geth stalker. He cursed mentally before firing at the drone, destroying it before dropping into cover. Shepard looked over and found Tali next to him and he heard Wrex firing his shotgun at the stalker.

When his shotgun overheated, he grunted before looking at Shepard, saying, "Damn thing won't be still. Can't get a target."

Tali looked towards the krogan and said, "That's what they are designed for. Models like them were mostly for observation and reconnaissance in the past. Now they use those traits for distraction and disorientation."

"Think you can hack them or something?" Wrex asked, getting ready to fire his shotgun again.

"Not this time," Shepard said quietly, not looking at them. When the two looked towards him to see what he meant, they noticed he was letting out a long breath and his eyes were closed. Before they could ask anything or react, Shepard had moved out of cover and down three steps, his shields only getting hit once. Shepard watched as the stalker shot at him, missing most of the time, and then jumped from pillar to pillar, wall to wall. When it finally came to a stop in order to shoot at him again, Shepard fired at its chest, never missing a hit. The stalker was only able to fire once at him before it fell to the ground, Shepard's shields taking the hit easily.

Blinking, Shepard shook his head. He could just make out Wrex saying, "All clear, Commander" in the background. When he had gotten his bearings back together, he looked to the colonist the geth had shot. She would have died just after she had been shot, if not immediately. Shepard grimaced for a second before saying they should keep moving. He didn't like it knowing that she died right as they had gotten there, but he knew that they couldn't have done anything. But like with Jenkins, it still didn't sit right with him.

The group continued to move down the stairs, finally getting to the bottom without seeing any more geth. They came out into an open area that had doorways on both sides, each leading to different areas. Looking towards the right, Shepard could just make out smaller hallways that continued towards the right, but the left side seemed to be blocked off. They crossed the small bridge connecting the two different sides, still having their guns at the ready.

"Anyone see anything?" Shepard asked, feeling edgy again. He never did like these quiet moments between firefights. One never knew what to expect.

"Nope," came from Wrex, while Tali said, "Nothing so far, Commander." They both sounded like they felt the same way.

Checking to see if they were covered to the right, Shepard straightened up slightly and lowered his pistol, but didn't compress it. He noticed the other two doing the same, Tali compressing her pistol to bring out her shotgun instead. He didn't blame her. This area meant that any fight they got into would mostly be close quarters and a shotgun would be ideal. With two shotguns, Shepard decided having a more long ranged weapon ready would be best, so he kept his pistol out.

Shepard noticed a door ahead of him that wasn't completely sealed from damage and motioned to it. Tali merely nodded while Wrex moved towards the door. Shepard nodded and Wrex opened up the door, moving in and sweeping the room with his shotgun. Shepard and Tali were right behind him as soon as Wrex said, "Clear."

Coming up to Wrex's right side, Shepard noticed that the room was probably a cargo or storage room. It was large and mostly empty except for some debris, with a steep rising area going above the door and a flat area at the top. Most likely a roadway, as there was a very large model Mako damaged there. Shepard imagined that they would find more rooms like this one if the looks of the place outside the room were anything to go by.

"Remember we're not just looking for geth down here," Shepard said, turning towards the others, "These rooms would probably make good places for varren to-"

He stopped talking when he heard the low growl of some animal from above them. Slowly, as not to provoke the animal he expected to see, Shepard turned his head and looked at the steep rising above the door. To the left of the damaged Mako tank, halfway between said Mako and the debris at the end of the room, were two varren, both barring their teeth and settling into a low crouch.

_Me and my big mouth,_ Shepard thought, turning back to look at his companions. He noticed Tali tilt her head slightly, in what he guessed was more of an annoyed gesture than a confused one, and Wrex had an amused look in his eyes, or at least as far as he could tell. He was still learning how to read a krogan. Either way, it seemed that these two had a similar train of thought as he did.

As soon as he heard the two varren growl in a way that seemed as though they were about to charge, Shepard brought up his pistol and started firing, moving backwards into the room to allow his companions to move further into the room and have better aim. The two varren dropped fairly quick, but two more replaced them, seemingly coming from behind the debris at the end of the room. Taking a breath, Shepard tried to focus to use what he called his 'Marksman' technique. While he did get several shots in at long range, killing one of the varren, it wasn't nearly as accurate as it had been and he let his pistol overheat. By the time it had cooled down enough to fire again, the other varren was almost on him. Just as he was about to charge his biotics, the varren was blown away by Wrex's shotgun.

Before he could thank him, they heard a loud roar coming from the debris, causing all three of them to point their guns towards where they saw the other varren come from. Shepard heard Wrex mutter, "What the hell…" right as a large red varren suddenly stomped out, looking in their direction.

The varren charged at them, making Wrex begin firing at it with his shotgun. While a shotgun is more of a short-range weapon, it could still cause some damage at a distance. This varren, however, was shrugging off every hit from Wrex's shotgun and it was visually obvious that it was being hit. But this thing was not slowing down. Tali started to shoot at it as it got closer, but it still wouldn't stop.

As it got even closer, Shepard had an idea. As he charged up his biotics, Shepard called out, "Wrex, Carnage shot right after me!" He saw Wrex pump his shotgun right as he used his biotics to Push the varren back a few feet. After it rolled back to its feet as though nothing happened, but then it was hit with a charged Carnage shot, putting it down for good.

Cautiously, Shepard lowered his pistol and stared at the smoking body of the varren. When he was sure that it wouldn't get back up, he looked over to Wrex and Tali. "Ever seen anything like that before?"

Tali merely shook her head, as Wrex answered, "Can't say I have, but I think its safe to say that we just killed the 'alpha varren' the turian was talking about."

Shepard could only agree with him. If it wasn't, then maybe they should leave the varren hunting to the geth. Once he was sure that the varren was in fact dead, Shepard told the others to check the room to be sure there weren't any more surprises. As they were about to leave, Tali called out and told them to come over to the damaged Mako-tank.

"What is it, Tali?" Shepard asked as they got to her. She appeared to be taking something apart from the tank.

"I think that- yes, it's the right part," she replied as she brought out a component and handed it to Shepard, "These powercells can be used for the power generator back in the colony. They are still in good condition, despite what this tank looks like." It was a bit heavy, Shepard thought as he weight it in his hands, but rather easy to carry. Tali pulled out two more powercells from the tank, both the same size and weight as the one Shepard was holding.

She handed one to Wrex and another to Shepard. "Hold these for a moment please," she asked while she brought up her omni-tool and began to scan the powercells. After a moment of scanning and typing, Shepard asked, "So are they still good? Will they work?"

Nodding, Tali said, "Yes, they'll work good as new. We just need to get them back to the colony and attach them to the generator."

She deactivated her omni-tool as Shepard said, "Good, from the sounds of it they could use these. But we can't go back just yet. We need to find that transmitter Fai Dan mentioned. We take that out and any remaining geth nearby should be more disorganized."

"We also need to keep an eye out for the water control systems. Lieutenant Alenko told me what to look for and that it would more than likely be down here," Tali explained, attempting to take one of the two powercells in Shepard's hands. He just shook his head, saying he had them while he replied, "Either way, we have a lot to get done down here before we head back to the colony. Lets leave these next to the doorway and grab them on our way back up."

After they had done just that, setting the three powercells just inside the doorway, they moved back into the main part of the tunnels. The path they were on had an outer and inner area, where parts of the colony's equipment had to be built in. When they stepped out of the door to the varrens former home, Shepard noticed another door that appeared to be able to open straight across from them over one of the connecting bridges. Deciding to bring out his assault rifle, he turned to Tali and Wrex and had them get out their own weapons to be ready. Both pulled out their shotguns again.

20 seconds after the door they approached opened, two geth drones came down from the ceiling and began firing on them. After some maneuvering to avoid their fire, the drones were taken down from the firing of two shotguns and an assault rifle. When he was sure that no more geth drones would be coming out from some other random location in the hallway they were now in, Shepard signaled Wrex and Tali to stay back and let him take the lead.

Staying where they were, Shepard moved ahead alone, slowly heading towards the end of the hall. As he reached the end, he saw that there was only one room to the left. Peering into said room, Shepard very quickly ducked back into the hallway, staying very close against the wall, looking pale to anyone who was close by. When he was sure that there would be no gunfire towards the doorway, or at all, he began to walk back carefully and quietly to his two other teammates.

Both Tali and Wrex could tell that something was bothering him. But before either could ask him what it was, Shepard spoke up and said, in a low voice, "That room has about 6 or more fully armored krogan that seems to be just waiting for an attack."

Tali's body posture went stiff as she muttered, "Keelah." Wrex seemed to smirk while hefting his shotgun, as though he was just waiting for an order to charge. Thinking for a second, Shepard got curious and asked Wrex, "Any idea as to why there's a bunch of krogan here? There didn't seem to be any geth parts laying around in there, so I doubt they're geth hunting."

Shrugging, Wrex said, "Dunno. Could just be some mercenaries hiding out, looking for a challenge."

Sighing, Shepard said, "Guess we're just gonna have to ask them." Thinking for another moment, Shepard said, "Alright, here's what we'll do. Best I can figure, taking as many out as we can, as fast as we can, is our best shot against all those krogan. Wrex, I want you do prep a Carnage shot and shoot the first krogan you can in there. Tali and I are going to throw in a couple grenades and start shooting from there. We use focused bursts on all nearby krogan until we take them all out. Any questions?"

"W-what do you think would be better to use, Commander?" Tali asked, sounding nervous while trying not to.

"You mean weapon wise?" When she nodded, Shepard smiled a bit and said, "That shotgun will be the best thing. You seem to be pretty good at using it, so just stick with it."

Shepard was relieved to see that she seemed at least little more confident after hearing that. The truth was, she really was good with a shotgun. But she was still getting used to actually being on the battlefield. At least, that was Shepard's best guess. He knew before they left the Citadel that she would be a great asset to the team, but he also thought that she seemed a bit inexperienced. So far, she's handled herself very well. And Shepard now found himself counting on that fact.

When Wrex didn't ask any questions, and when Tali didn't ask anymore of her own, Shepard motioned for them to follow him quietly. As they reached the end of the hall, Shepard held up three fingers. Then two. Then one.

When Shepard made a fist, they moved. Shepard moved first, throwing a grenade into the room towards the first krogan he saw while going to the other side of the door. Wrex was right behind him, shooting his Carnage shot at a krogan right next to the one Shepard aimed his grenade at. Tali stepped out from her side of the door long enough to throw her own grenade towards a group next to the one Shepard and Wrex aimed at, before stepping back behind the wall to ready her shotgun.

When those few seconds were over, two krogan were knocked on their backs from Shepard's grenade, another fell and tumbled over and over from Wrex's Carnage shot, killing it instantly, and another krogan fell while two others doubled over from the grenade Tali threw into the room. Immediately, Shepard began firing his assault rifle at the krogan still standing, Tali joining in soon after. The two that had doubled over from Tali's grenade took every hit, soon falling over completely. Each of Shepard's team's shields flared as a random shot from a krogan trying to stand back up went their way. However, their shots were random, and not aimed. Shepard's team was.

Before they could shoot the last enemy krogan still alive, said krogan began to glow a dim white color. Shepard began to shoot, but soon his assault rifle overheated. His shields had also just gone out from the last shot of the last krogan they killed. He looked over and noticed Tali in the same situation he was while leaning against the wall, and he doubted Wrex's shields could hold out much longer after all the fire it had taken before this. Shepard quickly charged up his biotics and used them to Throw the glowing krogan back against the wall, where it fell back to the ground. By this point, all three of their guns were cooled down and pointed at the krogan. It didn't take long after that.

Shepard stepped into the room first, checking every which way he could before calling an, "All clear." As the other two came in behind him, Shepard noticed a small room in the corner. Stepping close with his assault rifle ready, he then heard a sound similar to whirring, but not the same kind he heard with the geth. When he finally got a look into the closed, he called for Tali and Wrex to come over.

"What is it, Commander?" Tali asked, before she got a look at what was in the closet like area of the room.

Inside was a tall machine spinning around in a circle, seemingly nonstop, giving out some kind of signal that was almost audible. After a moment, Wrex, who had also saw the machine, said, "I'm guessing that's the transmitter you mentioned ealier."

Nodding, Shepard asked, "Has to be, but how do we shut it down?"

Shepard heard Wrex chuckle and a click before the only living krogan in the room said, "Step back."

As Shepard and Tali both stepped back, they looked and saw Wrex step forward and shoot a Carnage shot point blank at the transmitter. The spinning machine blew apart instantly, parts of it flying out and into the room, missing each living occupant in the room.

Looking back into the closet, Shepard said, "Alright… I guess that works…"

"At least… It's technically shut down…" Tali replied, sounding like she might laugh.

Wrex merely chuckled again, not saying anything. He merely turn towards the door and began walking out of the room and back out of the hallway, into the tunnels, Shepard and Tali not far behind.

When they stepped back out into the tunnels, Shepard took point again, moving towards the first of a few different hallways that ran along the tunnels. As they neared the first hall that went into the wall, Tali motioned for them to stop. In a low voice, she said, "I'm detecting movement on the motion tracker up ahead."

Shepard nodded to her and motioned for them to follow him quietly. Bringing his pistol up and at the ready, Shepard quickly and quietly moved into the inner hall, going into cover as soon as he could. Looking over his cover, he quickly motioned for Wrex and Tali not to come into the room. There were a lot of geth in this room and he could see at least one Destroyer model.

Thinking for a moment, Shepard switched his pistol for his shotgun and checked to see if he had any grenades left. He had two. Giving himself another moment to think, Shepard quietly spoke over their short range radios, "I'm going to throw a grenade into the biggest cluster I can see. As soon as you hear it go off, come in firing and find cover." They both nodded to him and got ready.

Prepping a grenade, Shepard quickly stood up and threw it towards the far end of the room, aiming for the stone cover the geth had on that end of the room. Back in cover, Shepard waited until he heard an explosion before standing up and firing at the closest geth. Feeling his shotgun overheat rather quickly, Shepard went back into cover, letting Wrex and Tali come into the room with their own guns blazing. Thankfully the geth didn't react to the attack until after the grenade had exploded, making it easier to get the upper hand as well as taking out two of the geth numbers.

Wrex had moved all the way to Shepard's left, against the wall, while Tali had stayed right next to Shepard's left side. After firing off a couple shots, Wrex said, "Three more, Commander, including a Destroyer."

Shepard nodded while prepping a Carnage shot. Suddenly he heard Tali mutter something while ducking back into cover. Seeing Shepard looking at her, she quickly explained, "My shields are down and that Destroyer is closing fast."

Quickly nodding, Shepard said, "Stay Down!" and jumped up. His shields flaring, Shepard aimed and fired his Carnage shot at the Destroyer, taking out its shields and knocking it onto its back a few feet away. Looking ahead, Shepard saw the last two geth, one of which was twitching from being shot at, more than likely from Wrex behind him. Shepard quickly aimed at fired at the other synthetic, eventually taking it out before it could take out his own shields.

Doing a quick sweep of the room, Shepard called out, "Clear." Turning back around, He saw Wrex and Tali making their way around their cover. Looking at Tali, Shepard said, "You ok, Tali?"

"Uh, yes, Commander, I'm fine. My shields should be coming back up soon…" she said, trailing off. Something to her right caught her eye, making her stop and look at it for a moment. Curious, Shepard walked over to where she was now leaning down and examining some kind of control panel.

"Tali?" Shepard asked.

She quickly looked up at him and then back at the panel, saying, "I think that this is a part of the water control system for the colony. Lt. Alenko explained some of what he knew of the system to me before we had our group briefing. If I'm right, then this should be…"

She activated the panel, but other than light changes on the panel, nothing obviously happened. Wrex seemed to notice as well because he said, "Doesn't look like it's on yet."

Tali started to get up, saying, "No, it wouldn't be. These valves are a three-part system. There should be a second control valve somewhere close by, with the third not far from it."

Looking around the panel she had just adjusted, Tali began to follow some of the pipes and conduits leading from it to the other end of the room, where they had just fought the geth. As she made her way across the room, focused on following the pipes, Shepard heard something that sounded like a whirring or a whine of some kind. Looking to his left, Shepard saw the geth Destroyer that he had hit with a Carnage shot earlier moving. Not just moving though. While it couldn't seem to stand, it was able to move its arms and hold its rifle. In fact, it was aiming its rifle. At Tali. Whose back was turned and shields were still recharging.

Doing the first thing he could think of, Shepard jumped in between the geth and Tali, flaring his biotics in hopes that it would boost his shields. The geth fired almost immediately, hitting both Shepard's shields and biotics, knocking the Commander backwards and tripping himself and Tali to the ground.

"Stay down!" Shepard called out to Tali once again, doing his best to stay between Tali and the shooting geth. She shook her head to clear the confusion from the sudden action, but did as she was told. Wrex then started to fire his shotgun at the Destroyer, taking it out quickly.

Shepard looked around when the gunfire stopped, making extra sure that there weren't anymore surprises. He then looked to Wrex and nodded, saying, "Thanks Wrex. Guess I dropped my guard a little early."

Wrex chuckled a bit before saying, "We both did. Guess we didn't take it out when you hit it before. Shields probably took most of that Carnage hit." He kicked one of the Destroyer's limbs, saying, "Least you crippled it."

Shaking his head, Shepard started to get up. He turned around and asked Tali, "You ok?"

Now on her knees, Tali said, "A little shaken, but yes, I'm alright, Commander." She looked up and saw Shepard holding out his hand to help her up, which she took.

"Sorry about that. Guess I didn't clear the room properly," Shepard said.

Tali shook her head, saying rather quickly, "No, really, its fine, Commander. I wasn't hit, so it's ok."

From behind him, Shepard could hear Wrex chuckle about something. Undeterred, Shepard said, "You would have been shot and probably killed without your shields if we hadn't noticed that Destroyer getting back up."

Before Shepard could continue, Wrex spoke up in an amused tone, "You mean if you hadn't jumped in front of her." Shepard turned around and looked at him, raising his eyebrow. Wrex merely shrugged, saying, "Just saying. You were acting as her shields that time, not including that attempt at a Barrier."

Shaking his head and sighing, Shepard said, "Either way," giving Wrex a pointed look before looking back at Tali, "lets make sure that your shields are back up before we move out. I don't want anything happening to my crew, especially when it can be avoided. I've already let that happen too many times."

While he had mumbled his last sentence, both Wrex and Tali had heard him. Tali immediately decided to pull up her omni-tool, presumably to check on her shields and make sure they were properly charging. Shepard turned around at seeing this and started talking to Wrex, hoping to change the mood he had just set among them.

"Speaking of Barriers, though, do you think you could help me figure that trick out when we're done here? I don't know whether Alenko knows how to do that or not," he asked Wrex.

Wrex merely shrugged and said, "Don't see why not. Cargo bay should be big enough to work in, right?" Shepard nodded and looked to see Tali deactivating her omni-tool and tracing the pipes along wall again. He picked up his shotgun that he had dropped earlier and collapsed it, pulling out his pistol instead, and followed her.

Stepping over a few of the geth they had destroyed earlier, Tali led them to another control panel at a door at the end of the room that led out of the hall. Kneeling down to adjust it, Shepard and Wrex saw the lights on the panel change while nothing else seemed to happen.

Looking at the pipes around the room, Wrex said, "Still not on, huh?"

Noticing the same thing, Shepard said, "Then we'll keep looking."

"There should be one last panel we have to activate. Considering how close these two where, we should find the third one nearby," Tali said, standing up.

Nodding in understanding, Shepard said, "In that case, lets continue through here," he indicated the door they were next to. This door led straight to another one, which led them into a hallway just like the one they had just left. There were stone pieces to use for cover, like in the previous hall, as well as geth. The group quickly went into battle mode, taking cover and firing at the geth in the same patterns as they had previously. Before long the geth were all destroyed. Shepard double-checked each geth this time around.

When the hall was clear, Tali quickly found the third panel she had mentioned earlier and adjusted it. However, this time a thud and whirring was heard going through the pipes lining the walls, inside and out.

While Shepard and Wrex were looking around at the sudden sounds, Tali started talking, saying, "There! That did it! The system is active."

Nodding to himself, Shepard said, "Good job, Tali. At least the colonist will have water again. Now lets finish clearing these tunnels out and get back to the colony."

The three fell into formation with Shepard taking point. They went through the next doorway at the end of the hall and cleared the immediate area. At first, they expected to find either more geth or another hallway to go through. Instead, they nearly shot a man that was standing to their immediate left, near the railings of the larger open area that ran along the hallways they had been traveling. Shepard put his pistol away, Wrex and Tali doing the same, as they walked up to him.

"You don't want to go down there," the man said.

Shepard asked, "What are you doing down here?"

"Nothing I should be," the man replied, "Everything I shouldn't." Then suddenly he cried out in pain before falling to his knees for a moment. He stood back up breathless, mumbling, "That was a good one. Very intense."

Shepard, who had jumped when the man had shouted, asked, "What's the matter with you?"

The mans reply was rather calm, if a little out of breath, saying, "Just invoking the master's whip. Helps remind me I'm alive." He paused for a moment before asking, "You're here for the geth, aren't you?" When Shepard nodded the man said, "You're not the only one interested in those… things."

That caught Shepard's attention. The way he said it, Shepard doubted this man was talking about the colonist. Shepard decided to ask, "Who else is looking for the geth?"

"Not looking for," the man started, "but looking to get rid of. They're a thorn in the side of the-AARGH!" He suddenly started shouting again, as if in pain, and was reaching for his head. He tried to talk again, even though he was visually struggling with himself, saying, "Trying to get to the-AAIIEEEE!"

For his part, Shepard was getting worried. Something was obviously wrong with this guy, and Shepard had no clue as to what or how to help. He was in pain, that much was sure. But there were no visible wounds, and he had been reaching for his head at one point. Now, during his screams, he was almost laughing, as though he was loosing his mind. Shepard's first thought was a concussion, but there was nothing he could personally do to help with that, and this was rather extreme for a concussion.

Behind him, he heard Tali say, "This one is no longer fit, Commander. I don't think he can be helped."

Not wanting to leave him, Shepard asked, "Is there anything I can do to help you? Do you even want help?"

Out of breath, the man replied, "Help me? No. No one can help me now. I'd rather die fighting!" he said, gritting his teeth during the last sentence.

"Fighting what?" Shepard said, catching the mans shoulder to look in his eye, worry and cautiousness obvious in the Commander's voice.

Straining again, the man tried to explain. "Not that kind of fight," he said, grimacing, almost as though through a convulsion. "It's like running through a thorn bush. The more you struggle…" The man, who was trying to keep eye contact with Shepard, suddenly seemed to notice something, saying, "Time's up. Company's coming." Looking back at Shepard, he tried once again to say something. "Ask Fai Dan. Ask him about the- AAHH!"

As the man passed out and fell to the floor from pain, Shepard heard a click and whir that he had been hearing a lot of during the past several hours. "Geth!" he shouted, catching the falling man and dragging him behind cover. Wrex and Tali had both pulled out shotguns when they heard the Commander's shout, and had taken their own positions behind cover, firing at the geth.

By the time Shepard had secured the strange man behind his cover and pulled out his own weapon, Wrex called out, "Perimeter clear." Looking himself, Shepard saw only two geth lying on the ground. Thinking about the small number of geth for a moment, Shepard secured his weapon and turned to the unconscious man they had just met. Knowing they couldn't take him along, Shepard left some medi-gel next to him, as well as the rations he had with him.

Standing up, Shepard turned to his team, saying, "Let's make our way back to the colony. We can tell them about him," he gestured to the man they were talking to, "and maybe get him some help ready for a retrieval. Keep your guns out and stay ready. I think those two geth were scouts."

"I thought it was odd that there were only two of them," Tali said.

Wrex looked at Shepard, asking, "Do you think we missed something? Another room maybe?"

Shepard shook his head, saying, "I doubt it. It could be they were in one part while we were in another and we just missed each other. By now, if they aren't just looking for random organics to shoot, their looking for whoever blew up their transmitter," Shepard looked directly at Wrex as he said that last part. Said krogan merely shrugged.

Shaking his head, Shepard continued, "Either way, they are in-between us and the colony. Let's take them out and get back to the colony."

"Don't forget we need to get those powercells, Commander," Tali spoke up. Shepard nodded to her before leading the way back through the way they came, prepared for the fights ahead.

* * *

_Like I had said before, this felt so long. Maybe its because there was nothing BUT fighting in this one. Fight scenes are among some of the things I tend to have trouble writing. Right next to personal descriptions of character looks._

_I do hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I will be working very hard to update faster, though I will no longer be claiming a week or two, or give any deadline. With how my schedule usually goes, that will be impossible to do. However, my goal is to have everything from here to the end of Mass Effect 2 by 2012, when Mass Effect 3 is released. _

_Please comment and give your opinion. I'd like to hear any and all comments!_

_-halfbreed_


	4. Chapter 4

_Well, it didn't take nearly as long for this chapter. I actually finished this about a week ago, but I spent all this time rereading and trying to go back through this chapter to figure out if anything was wrong or needed to be rewritten._

_Just a couple small notes about this chapter. First, This is mostly a non-cannon chapter. The beginning and end of this chapter are parts from the game, from the main storyline, but everything else in between is something I have written and added to help describe the characters. So i do hope you enjoy._

_Second, I have hinted at small prayers that Shepard has said before, but this chapter has a full prayer scene. Nothing major, but it does come right out with it. Now, whether you believe the way I do (or Shepard does), I still believe that you can enjoy the story either way. If not, then I will leave whether you continue reading up to you. _

_Either way, I'd love to hear from you, the reader. Please feel free to comment anything regarding the story! Enjoy!_

* * *

With all the geth in their way destroyed, Shepard, Tali and Wrex finally made their way back to the colony, once again radioing Garrus so that he did not shoot them at the door. Coming through, they found Fai Dan and Arcelia to the right of the door, in about the same area where they were before.

"Commander," Fai Dan greeted as they walked up to him, "What can I do for you?"

"We took out a geth transmitter in the tunnels. If anything, they should be more disorganized, and less of a problem," Shepard said.

His face showed a bit of relief as he said, "Thank you, Commander. We are in your debt. You and your crew have taken a great weight off my shoulders."

Shepard was grateful to notice that Fai Dan mentioned not just him, but the crew that helped him as well. Fai Dan continued talking, "I just wish I had such good news for every problem."

"Actually," Shepard started, getting Fai Dan's full attention, "We talked to the other people you pointed us to about some of those problems. Water and food should be easier to get for the colony, and these powercells here," Shepard held up one of the three powercells Tali found earlier, "should help fix the power problem as well."

"We truly are in your debt, Commander. You have no idea how much that will help us get through this. If you would, please let the people in charge of those issues know of what you've done. I'm sure they would appreciate it," Fai Dan said, actually sounding like a weight was taken off his shoulders.

Shepard was just about to nod and walk away when he remembered something. "There is a guy living down in the tunnels. Is he one of yours?"

His smile fading, Fai Dan said, "That would be Ian. He is very sick."

"He seemed more than just sick. Almost like something was attacking him," Shepard said, musing over his last sentence.

Fai Dan merely said, "He hasn't been the same since the attack. We tried to help him, but he wouldn't listen to us. I can't help my people if they wont listen, Commander."

Considering what Fai Dan had said about the man now known as Ian, he and Shepard exchanged a few more words before Shepard departed to help Tali deliver the powercells they both carried; Shepard two powercells and Tali one. Wrex stayed behind with Garrus to help watch the door.

* * *

An hour later, Shepard found himself back at the door that led to the tunnels and the skyway. Fai Dan and Arcelia were walking the other side of the colony, checking on the colonist's states of minds, including the ones whom Shepard and his squad had helped. In their place, all of the crew was together again. Currently, Kaiden had his assault rifle out guarding the door while Garrus and Wrex stood close by, near a tall stack of stone pieces. Tali was sitting on some broken stone pieces to the right of the door, with Shepard standing to her left. Ashley was standing to Shepard's left, facing the doorway with her own assault rifle out.

"… and once those powercells are finishing being installed, on top of the dead alpha varren and the water system being turned back on, this colony should be ready for rebuilding when the geth are gone," Shepard said, finishing their team briefing.

"That in itself will not be an easy task," Tali spoke up. "The geth are thorough. Unless we stop them, they will continue until the whole colony is destroyed."

Shepard looked at her. Anyone could hear the dejected tone in which she had said that. Hoping to lighten her mood, Shepard said in a moderate tone, not too happy, not too scolding, "That's why we're where. We're going to stop them."

Tali looked up at him for a moment before nodding. Nodding to her, Shepard turned to Ashley and asked, "Did you manage to pick up anything from the colonists?"

Shaking her head, Ashley said, "Nothing new, Commander. I just noticed the same thing everyone else did. Something's wrong with the whole colony, but I couldn't figure out what."

Looking around their area to be sure they weren't being overheard, Shepard asked, "Do you think they may be hostile?"

Shrugging, she said, "Couldn't say. Like I said, I couldn't get any new information. Everyone was pretty tight lipped."

"I see…" Shepard mumbled, thinking on what to do. This colony may be safer now, but the colonists were hiding something. They all just kept saying 'Speak with Fai Dan,' which meant that Fai Dan was hiding something from them as well, despite his friendly demeanor. Could it be what the geth are here for? Was it what Saren came here for? Just what is it?

Sighing, Shepard looked up and noticed that it was getting dark. There wasn't any time for them to do anymore today. Nothing except help protect the colony.

Looking to each member as he spoke, Shepard said, "Alright, we'll stay here till morning. We'll help guard Zhu's Hope throughout the night. Two six-hour shifts and we'll stick with the same teams as before. Alenko," said biotic nodded his head, "you, Garrus and Williams get some rest. Tali, Wrex and I will take the first shift. We'll wake you up in 6."

Kaiden nodded and said, "Yes sir," before leaving with his respective team to find a place to sleep. Meanwhile, Tali and Wrex stayed where they were while Shepard sat back in the spot next to Tali.

"We'll take turns periodically walking through the colony, but for the most part we'll stay here. This is the most likely place they'll come through unless more of those drones fly over the walls," Shepard explained. Both Wrex and Tali nodded before pulling out their shotguns. Wrex moved closer to the door while Tali began to do some basic checks on her gun.

While they did that, Shepard took the time to think again. The only solid thing they knew about what was going on was that the geth were after something and that Saren might have a hand in it. Whatever that something was, it was more than likely located at the ExoGeni building across the skyway. But even that information was shaky at best…

"Commander? Are you alright?"

Blinking and shaking his head, Shepard looked to his right and saw Tali looking at him with her head tilted in what Shepard could now easily tell was her curious and confused expression. Being so lost in his thoughts before, he didn't really hear what she asked him.

"What? Sorry, Tali, what did you say?"

"You were staring off into nowhere. I asked if you were alright."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking is all," Shepard answered quickly.

Her head still tilted in confusion, Tali asked, "What about, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Not at all," Shepard said, as he sat back up straight, noticing Wrex was also paying attention to their conversation. "I was just thinking on the mission. Obviously we don't have all the answers here, and its bothering me. The geth are here but we still haven't confirmed whether Saren was here or not. And right now our only lead as to what the geth are after is in the ExoGeni building."

"Whatever they're after must be pretty important," Wrex stated.

Shepard couldn't help but agree with him, "Yeah, but what is it, though? What could be so important that the geth would openly attack an entire human colony? Seems almost too reckless."

"Didn't they do the same thing on Eden Prime?" Tali asked.

"Yeah," Shepard answered, "but they were after the Prothean Beacon that was discovered there. If something like that was here, you'd think that the Alliance or the Council would have heard about it by the time the geth found out. Unless…"

At that point a thought crossed Shepard's mind that really bothered him. Apparently Wrex was thinking along the same lines as he was, because Wrex finished his statement by saying, "Unless that's what these colonists here are hiding."

_That would make sense_, Shepard thought. _It would explain why everyone barely says anything unless they have to and why the geth attacked without anyone knowing the reason._

"If that's the case, then that means Fai Dan is behind this conspiracy. That or he's the front man for it," Shepard said out loud while he was thinking.

Having followed what was being said, Tali asked, "What do we do then, Commander?"

Shaking his head a bit, Shepard replied, "Nothing right now, Tali. For the time being, we need Fai Dan and he needs us, so he won't try anything while it stays that way. Let's just make sure to keep an extra eye out for anything more suspicious from the colonists or from Fai Dan."

They both nodded in agreement while Wrex took another look down the hallway. Standing, Shepard started to walk away while pulling out his assault rifle, calling out from over his shoulder, "I'm going to do a walkthrough of the colony. I'll be back in a few."

Deciding to circle the area, Shepard went through the freighter in the middle of the colony, planning to go towards the doorway that led to the Normandy and circle the colony from there. Right as he neared the door at the other end of the freighter, it opened to reveal Fai Dan and Arcelia.

Making eye contact, Fai Dan said, "Commander, anything I can help you with?"

"Actually," Shepard started, "I wanted to let you know that my crew will be helping to keep watch throughout the night. Half of them are getting some rest while they can before they take their turn on guard duty."

Smiling, Fai Dan said, "I'm glad to hear that, Commander. The extra security makes me feel a little better at least."

Nodding, Shepard continued, saying, "In the morning, I plan to take a team across the skyway and towards the ExoGeni building. Until then, we'll be around here incase any more geth show up."

"Very well then, Commander. It sounds like you have everything under control. Should you need anything, please let me know." Fai Dan looked ready to move on pass Shepard, who was going to do the same, when Fai Dan spoke up again, "Oh, and Commander? I've spoken with the people you've helped to get the colony running again. They were all very grateful, as am I. I just wanted to thank you and your crew again for your hard work."

Shepard said his thanks for the compliments and they parted ways. Walking around the colony didn't prove eventful other than the occasional 'thank you's from the colonists that they had helped earlier. Eventually Shepard found himself back at the doorway where Tali and Wrex were pretty much in the same positions that they were in before he left.

* * *

After an hour or two, with the only change between them was exchanging places guarding the doorway, Wrex took his turn to do a security check through the colony. By this point, it was dark out and the few lights still working, as well as the fires that were burning, were the only lighting available. Thankfully that was enough to keep a good eye on most of the colony, including where Tali and Shepard were.

Currently, it was Tali standing at the door with her shotgun while Shepard was sitting in her original spot on the chunks of stone, checking his pistol. By this point, he had checked it three times already, but ended up checking it again anyway. Throughout this time, there had been some light chatter between the three of them, but nothing serious or too personal had been discussed.

While Shepard finished putting his pistol back together, Tali looked towards him and asked him a question that had been bothering her for some time now. "Commander, if you don't me asking, why did you decide to include me in your Ground Team?"

Raising an eyebrow, Shepard asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, as I said back on the Citadel, I can handle things on my own," Tali started, "but I'm not as experienced as Wrex or Garrus. And I imagine that they have had more training than I have too…"

As she trailed off, Shepard thought about how to respond. Tali's confidence seemed to vary depending on what situation she is in, like most anyone's would. But she needed a little more confidence in herself in general, it seemed. Deciding to be upfront about it, Shepard started to answer her.

"Tali, its like you said, you can handle your own. Your reaction time back on the Citadel against Fist's men was quick and you were ready to fight that battle by yourself if you had to. And don't forget that you took out a geth patrol on your own before that."

During a pause in Shepard's response, Tali interjected, "I only took out one geth though. I didn't take out the entire unit I was following."

"That doesn't matter," Shepard said, shaking his head, "It takes skill to track anything without being caught, be it organic or synthetic. Yet you also took one out and showed impressive skills by salvaging that memory core. Even if I didn't have you come along as a front-line fighter, Tali, I'd have put you on the Ground Team as a skilled tech specialist either way. And now that I've seen what you can do with a pistol and shotgun, I can see that it was the right decision to have you on the Ground Team."

"You… really think so?" she said, sounding a bit embarrassed at his compliments.

Nodding his head, Shepard said, "Yes I do. I'm glad you came along, Tali. God knows that we're going to need the help to get through this."

It was quiet for a moment while Tali thought about what Shepard said. Eventually, she responded, saying, "Thank you, Commander." He merely nodded to her just as Wrex walked back up to them, saying that he didn't see anything of concern. They continued their watch for several more hours, each trading places with the other, either guarding the door or walking through the colony, before they woke up and traded places with Kaiden's team.

As the three of them got comfortable, Wrex and Tali dozed off to sleep. Shepard, however, was up for a bit longer. He was nervous about getting some sleep, as not only has he had trouble getting used to his quarters on the Normandy, Shepard had also been having rather unpleasant dreams. He wouldn't call them nightmares just yet, as they were not that intense, but they still put him on edge. For the most part, they included the visions he received from the Protheam Beacon. But last night, though he couldn't remember much of it, Shepard thought he had a dream about Akuze again. And he knew for a fact that those were never pleasant.

* * *

Eventually, Ashley woke up Shepard and his from their slumber. Groggily, they all got up and stretched, getting themselves ready for the day. At one point, Shepard took a bit of water that was offered to him and, after drinking a bit of it, splashed the rest of it onto his face to help him wake up. When he received looks from some of his crew, he explained that despite being a soldier, he was never a morning person. Still noticing a curious look from some of the non-human members of the group, he explained that washing ones face like that would sometimes help wake that person up.

As they worked their way to rejoin the rest of the group and the doorway that would take them towards the skyway, Shepard slowed down and said, "Hey, give me a minute? I need to do something." When the they nodded to him, Shepard turned left and walked up the catwalk like area where they had their first group briefing before he, Wrex and Tali went into the tunnels yesterday.

When he was by himself, Shepard faced away from the colony with his hands on the railing, leaning against it with his head bowed low. Three members of the rest of the team noticed his posture, two of them curious and the other understanding. As Kaiden nodded his head just slightly, he heard Garrus next to him say quietly, "What is he doing?"

Kaiden looked at him and noticed Tali behind them, who was also looking towards the Commander. Looking back at Shepard, Kaiden said, "He's praying. He always tries to make time to pray before heading out on assignment."

When he finished explaining, Kaiden turned and walked towards the door, Garrus shaking his head and following him while muttering, "Huh… Didn't think he was the religious type." Tali stared just a moment longer after hearing what Kaiden had said before she too left for the doorway.

Shepard had just bowed his head, thinking on what to say, what to pray for. He always found himself thinking about what he was going to say before he did it. Even though he knew that God already knew what he was going to say, Shepard always took the time to think about it.

Finally, he started, "Alright, Lord, I have another job to do. Thankfully, I'm not alone. God, You've provided me with a skilled group of people to work with. I pray that You would keep them safe. When bullets start flying, I pray that their shields hold, their armor is strong, and that the enemies bullets miss their target."

Stopping for a second, Shepard looked up a bit, took a deep breath and continued, "I know You have a plan, and I know that everything happens for a reason. So I'll trust You to see us through this. If it's our time, if its my time, then so be it. I just pray that this group with me has a chance to know You before that happens."

Shepard bowed his head lower for a moment before standing and straightening up, finishing with, "Father God please keep us safe and lead us all to do the right thing. Its in Your Son, Jesus the Christ's name I pray, Amen."

Looking up at the sky for a moment, Shepard then turned and made his way back to the rest of his team. As he approached, everyone looked up and waited for him to give the order.

"Alright then. Same team and plans as before. Wrex, Tali and I will head towards the ExoGeni building and see if we can figure out just why geth are attacking this place. Alenko, you Garrus and Williams keep this part of the colony safe."

Everyone either nodded or said 'yes sir.' Shepard looked behind him, and seeing that they were not being watched or overheard, said to Kaiden, "Keep an eye on the colonists. If something does happen while we're gone, get back to the Normandy as soon as you can and radio us."

"Sir, what if they open fire on us?" Kaiden asked, wondering how the Commander wanted them to handle that particular situation.

Almost immediately, Shepard said, "Defend yourself, Lieutenant, but I want casualties kept at a minimum or, if at all possible, non-existent. This place doesn't need a higher body count. Understood?"

Nodding, Kaiden said, "Understood, Commander. We'll do our best."

"Good. Alright, lets move out," Shepard said, patting Kaiden on the shoulder as he walked passed him and through the door and towards the elevator that would take them to the Skyway.

* * *

The moment they stepped out of the elevator, they found a few colonists guarding the elevator. And they were under fire from a number of geth drones. Very quickly, Wrex, Tali and Shepard pulled out their weapons and began giving the colonists supportive fire. While the colonists may have been having trouble before, now the drones were the ones having trouble. Before long, the drones were destroyed and the garage like area Shepard and his team had came in on was clear of enemies.

While everyone was still getting up from their positions, Shepard looked around the room and noticed a Mako similar to the one on the Normandy. Looking to the colonists, who had just thanked them for the assistance, Shepard asked, "Does that Mako work?"

Looking at it then back at him, one of the colonists replied, "It should, unless one of those geth got in a lucky shot at it."

Having an idea, Shepard asked, "Can we take it? We're heading to the ExoGeni building to do something about these geth."

"Go ahead. If you can get rid of those damn machines, its yours. I don't know how much more of this I can take," the same man said. Thanking him, Shepard, Wrex and Tali worked their way into the tank. While it seemed small on the outside, this Mako, like the one back on the Normandy, could fit at least 8 humans without too much difficulty, despite those 8 humans being shoulder to shoulder. Even with Wrex's size, the three of them would be able to use it without any issue.

"Wrex, see if you can use the controls for the gun turret. Tali, take the front seat next to me," Shepard said as they got into the tank. It took Wrex a moment to get into position, but he managed to get the controls for the turret where he needed them to work it. As Tali made her way to the front of the tank, Shepard came in behind her and got into the drivers seat. While he began the startup process, he explained to the others, "I'll drive. Wrex, shoot anything your able to while we move. I'm going to make this thing go fast and hard. Tali, you think you can work those panels to monitor our shields and armor strength?"

"Let me see…" Tali responded while pressing a few keys and testing some of the options and controls. After a moment, she said, "Yes, I can do most anything needed to from here. Though if our shields go down they will need time to recharge. If we don't give them time and the armor or engines take any damage, then I'll need even more time to try and repair them."

Shepard smirked slightly as Tali talked, seeing the engineer getting comfortable in her preferred environment and seeing her confidence rising as she worked. It seemed he was right about her confidence changing depending on her situation. When she was done talking, Shepard nodded and said, "Good to hear. Wrex, any trouble back there?"

"Got it handled, Shepard. Lets go kill something," Wrex said, sounding eager.

From her seat, Tali took a breath and said, "And now to the geth base. We can expect heavy resistance."

Smirk still on his face, Shepard said, "Alright then. Hang on, we're heading out."

The Mako fully activated and started to roll forward. The garage door opened as they neared it and the tank began its journey across the Skyway, right into the battlefield.

* * *

_Well, next chapter we will be back in the game, back into the main story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I would love to hear some feedback regarding these stories. Help me find a better way to write and express these tales. Hopefully all of the story will be told by the time ME3 comes out._

_Well, God bless and be safe everyone!_

_-halfbreed_


	5. Chapter 5

_Wow... its really been a while, huh? Sorry it took me so long to get this up. I finished this chapter a couple weeks ago, but I wasnt able to get to posting it until now. I really do plan on at least getting rough drafts done by the time Mass Effect 3 comes out. _

_Anyway, here's the chapter. Hope you enjoy! Dont forget to comment!_

* * *

Almost as soon as the Mako rolled out of the garage area it had been resting in, Shepard, Tali and Wrex watched a geth drop ship fly right past them, heading towards the end of the long walkway that could only be the Skyway they were told about. They continued to drive onwards along the Skyway, towards their destination at the end: the ExoGeni building. If the geth really were stationing themselves there, then there would be answers as to why they attacked and what they are looking for there.

Up ahead, Shepard could just barely make out some kind of roadblock or blockade ahead of them. As he wondered if it was set up then abandoned during the initial geth attack, Shepard heard the telltale sound of the Mako's shields being hit with gunfire. Apparently the geth were using the roadblock as cover.

Before he could get closer, Shepard happened to see a bright blue light out of the corner of his eye. By the time he realized it was heading towards them, the light impacted against the Mako, pushing it back and rocking its occupants.

Quickly pulling himself together in his seat, Shepard asked, "What the hell was that?"

"A siege pulse. There must be Armatures up ahead," Tali answered while she checked the Mako's systems. She then turned to Shepard and said, "That siege pulse took a lot of our shields down and almost overloaded some of our systems with just that one hit. We can't take too many hits like that."

"So what are Arma-"

"Shepard, incoming!" Wrex interrupted. Looking forward, Shepard saw another siege pulse headed their way. Thinking quickly, he pressed the appropriate button at the controls. Next thing either of his other teammates knew, the jumpjets of the Mako were activated and they were rising 8 feet into the air. The siege pulse flew right under them as the jumpjets shut down and the Mako hit the ground.

"That was close…" Tali muttered quietly.

As Shepard silently agreed, he got an idea. If they could avoid those siege attacks like that and stay at a distance…

"Wrex! Think you can use that cannon at long range?" Shepard shouted to the krogan in the back.

"Should be able to. If we can stay still long enough I can get an accurate shot," Wrex said while checking over the setup for the turret. "We'll still need to get a bit closer though," the krogan added.

Nodding his head, Shepard turned back to the front and said, "Good. I'll move us in. Soon as we get close enough for you let me know. Just be ready for more jumps like what we just did as soon as you see one of those pulses."

As Wrex responded with, "Got it," Shepard started to speed towards the roadblock. He could still hear the small sounds of the geth shooting at them, but the shields of the Mako protected them easily. The same could not be said for any geth out of cover, as Wrex continued to fire at the geth he could make out at that distance that were trying to fire at the Mako they were in.

When they could easily see the geth positioned behind the roadblock, Wrex told Shepard to stop. As they rolled to a stop, Shepard and Tali could hear Wrex use the cannon attached to the turret, and could see unfortunate geth get blown away. As he was scanning for the Armature geth Tali had mentioned before, Shepard spotted a siege pulse and quickly used the jumpjets to dodge it the same way as before. As soon as they landed, Shepard caught sight of the two Armatures. They were tall, four-legged geth, easily about twice as tall as the Mako. Shepard could just make out small turret-like guns being fired from said Armature before Wrex started to fire the cannon again, this time at one of the Armatures.

Shepard kept close watch on the Armatures as Wrex fired at them. Unless Tali said something about the shields, then Shepard had every intention of staying right there and letting Wrex fire endlessly at the geth. When he would see the Armature stand taller and charge a siege pulse, Shepard would watch even more closely until they fired, only then starting the jumpjets in order to dodge the attack.

In three shots of the cannon, Wrex had taken out one of the Armatures and quickly began to take aim on the second. The time it took for the cannon to rearm itself was a bit too long for any of their liking, but the shields were still holding and the plan seemed to be working.

"Commander, the shields are down by 50%!" Tali called out right as Wrex fired another cannon shot at the last Armature before the tall geth exploded.

Before Wrex could turn the turret to the two remaining geth still standing at the roadblock, Shepard called out, "Hold on!" before driving the Mako forward and ramming the blockade, crushing the geth behind it.

"Nice one, Shepard," Wrex called out from the back. From beside him, Shepard heard Tali say, a little breathlessly, "That was certainly different."

After checking the area and seeing no more geth, Shepard turned to Tali and raised his eyebrow, saying, "Different, huh?"

As Tali nodded, the sound of static came through the Mako's comm. system before someone began speaking through it, "The last batch went south. What are they looking for?"

Shepard looked up from the panel and at Tali. "We're receiving a weak comm. signal," she said while her fingers were flying over the panel in front of her, "but I can't pinpoint its location. There must be some geth interference on the comm. channels."

"Did we loose the signal? It sounded pretty weak," Shepard asked, noting that there wasn't anymore sound coming out of the comm..

"I don't think so. I'll try and push pass the interference and clear up the sound quality while I find out where it's coming from," Tali explained. Shepard merely nodded and began backing up and driving the Mako around the blockade.

"How's our shields?" Shepard asked as they finally made it past the roadblock.

Tali was quick to answer. "Charging. They are currently at 70%."

Nodding to her, Shepard drove the Mako further across the Skyway. Right as they came to the top of a small rise in the Skyway, Tali spoke up and said, "More chatter, Commander Shepard. But I still can't get a fix on the location."

Once again, the obviously female voice came over the comm. as Tali finished, "Any sign of movement? Lizbeth could still be in there. It's only been a few days."

"That definitely sounds like survivors," Shepard said, keeping focused on the Skyway. "Keep trying to pinpoint it. Maybe we can send them the intel on Zhu's Hope and get them some help."

Before anyone could say anything else, the woman's voice came back and said, "She's my daughter. I'll wait as long as I have to."

Shepard and Tali shared a look at that statement, before they both turned back to their perspective duties, Tali saying, "I'll do what I can, Commander."

They soon came across another garage-like area and the garage doors opened as they came close to them. These opened to reveal another door, which also opened to the inside of a building. The immediate road seemed blocked off by debris, so Shepard drove up the steep side to the right of the room to go around it. As he did this, the woman's voice came through again on the comm., saying, "We've got movement! Some kind of vehicle. Not one of the geth."

"Whoever that is," Tali said while Shepard began looking around the room they were in, thinking along the same lines as Tali, "they must be close to have seen us."

From the back, they heard Wrex say, "Forget them! We need to find the geth."

Shepard stopped looking around, turned to the back and said, "Our first priority is survivors. If they're close by, we're going to find them."

"There!" Tali suddenly called out, making Shepard turn away from Wrex and back to the front. Once they had driven around the debris, they were now faced with what appeared to be a ramp that led to an upper level of the Skyway. Next to it, somewhat hidden from view, was a ramp that lead down a level.

Looking at Tali for a second, Shepard asked, "You think so?"

She nodded, saying, "It's close enough for them to have seen us and it is well hidden as compared to other areas."

Nodding to agree with her, Shepard stopped the Mako in front of the ramp that led to the upper level, which was right next to the ramp that led down. Shutting off the Mako, Shepard turned to Tali and Wrex, saying, "Make sure the area is clear, but watch your fire. Do not shoot if you think there are survivors nearby."

Getting out of the Mako, they scanned the area around them for geth. Not seeing any, they made their way over to the ramp that led down. Shepard looked at Wrex and Tali next to him before moving ahead, taking point. Right as they neared the bottom, Shepard saw three armed humans next to some crates at the very bottom of the ramp that entered the wide room they were walking towards.

"Hold your fire!" Shepard called out while slowing down the groups pace, "Friendlies coming down!"

They seemed to have heard him, as the guards lowered their weapons slightly and allowed them to come close. Putting their own weapons down, Shepard, Tali and Wrex passed them and entered the room. They put away their weapons as they looked around at the number of survivors scattered about the area. Before they could see who was in charge of the group, two people walked towards them, one of them holding a pistol in hand.

"That's close enough!" said the one with the pistol. He seemed obviously jumpy and on edge.

The woman next to him, who seemed calmer than the man, turned to him and said, "Relax, Jeong. They obviously aren't geth."

"Get back, Juliana!" the man now known as Jeong said quickly, before turning back to Shepard's group and asking, "Who are you? What do you want?"

Hoping to keep Jeong as calm as he could, Shepard answered, "Commander Shepard. With me is Tali'Zorah and Urdnot Wrex. We're here to remove your geth problem."

A smile passed across Juliana's face before she said to Jeong, "You see? You worry too much."

Jeong merely glared at her, saying, "And you trust too easily."

Rolling her eyes, Juliana turned back to Shepard and said, "I'm just glad to see a friendly face. I though we were the only humans left on this planet."

"Fai Dan and some of the members of Zhu's Hope are still alive," Shepard informed them.

Immediately she turned to Jeong and said, "I thought you said they were all dead."

"I said they were probably dead," Jeong defended, as though he had done no wrong.

"They live, but the geth have devastated their colony," Tali explained.

"We know what that's like," Juliana said to Tali. Sighing, she continued, "Those damn synthetics are relentless."

"We'll do whatever we can to keep them away from you, but we need some information first," Shepard said, getting ready to hopefully find some answers.

But Jeong jumped in, asking, "What kind of information?"

Juliana merely said, "Ignore him. The geth are holed up in the Exogeni headquarters. You're almost there, just a bit further down the skyway."

"Those headquarters are private property, soldier!" Jeong suddenly said. "Remove the geth and nothing else!"

Keeping in mind that Jeong seemed readily trigger-happy, Shepard kept his eyes on Jeong's gun while saying lightly, "I'm not interested in your company's secrets."

"Commander, before you go…" Juliana started, seeming to struggle with something.

Shepard merely nodded for her to continue. She started again, saying, "My daughter, Lizbeth, she's missing…"

Before she could continue, Jeong interrupted again in an attempt to blow Juliana's request off, saying, "They shouldn't waste time poking around. We can do a proper accounting of our casualties after the geth are gone."

Shepard started to say something about that statement, but Juliana nearly shouted, "That's my daughter you're talking about! She's still alive. I know it."

Hoping for the same thing Juliana was, Shepard asked her, "Where was your daughter, Juliana?"

"She was working in the Exogeni building when the attacks came," Juliana explained.

Again, Jeong stepped in, saying in a sarcastic tone, "Oh yeah, there are several places should could hide." Under his breath, they all heard him say, "For a short time."

Deciding to take Juliana's earlier advice in ignoring Jeong, Shepard told her, "If she's in there, we'll get her out."

Looking at least a little relieved, she said, "Thank you, Commander. Thank you."

Shepard spent about the next hour asking about what he could regarding the attacks and the reason behind them. For the most part, all he learned was that whatever the reason was, Exogeni had nothing to do with it and had no answers for anyone. _At least none they want to share,_ Shepard couldn't help but think.

When he was done talking with Jeong and Juliana, Shepard decided to take a few minutes to look around at the group of people gathered in the area to make sure there weren't any major issues or injuries that would need to be checked soon. As he did so, a man discretely managed to get his attention and wave him over. When he walked over, the man asked him to help him retrieve some information from his personal terminal in the Exogeni building. Shepard made no promises but said that if he found the man's terminal, he would get the information.

When that was done, Shepard, Tali and Wrex made their way back to the Mako in order to head into the Exogeni building. It was during this little walk that Tali spoke up, asking in an amused tone, "What is it about you that makes people think we enjoy getting in harm's way?"

Chuckling a bit, Shepard replied, "Maybe it's the armor."

* * *

_Short, yes, but I do hope it works out better being shorter. I'm still working on combat scenes, but I do hope they are getting better. Anyway, until next time!_

_-halfbreed_


	6. Chapter 6

_It has been sometime since I've update this particular fanfiction. To be honest I have struggled to come back to this one to work on it. But, I am getting back into the Mass Effect mindset, and am going to put some more work into this as much as College allows._

_I do hope ya'll enjoy this chapter. I think the next one will be more enjoyable. Special idea I've had in mind for a while._

* * *

After they got back into the Mako, Shepard, Wrex and Tali made their way up the ramp that was next to the area where they had just found a large group of survivors. When they made it to the top, they found other garage-like doors that led back out onto the skyway.

As the doors opened, Shepard told the others in the Mako, "Keep your eyes open."

Not long after they had driven back out onto the open skyway did they find another geth barricade with the geth already firing at them. Searching quickly while their shields took minimal damage from the geth, Shepard asked either of his team members, "Anyone see any Armatures?"

"Just one," Wrex said, firing at the geth from a distance to try and keep them behind their own cover.

After a second, Shepard saw the Armature that Wrex mentioned. Not seeing any others, Shepard said, "Alright then, lets try and hit this one up close." Wrex merely grunted to show he heard Shepard, but Tali whipped her head around and looked him. But before she could say anything, Shepard said, "Hold on!"

The Mako suddenly sped towards the geth, just barely driving under a siege pulse from the Armature. Wrex continued to fire from the gun turret while Shepard drove the Mako straight at the geth. Two of the geth troopers were shot down by Wrex by the time the Mako was on top of the others, driving straight through them and knocking them down, one of the geth falling over the side of the skyway itself.

"Wrex, focus on the regular geth!" Shepard shouted.

Wrex started to fire on any geth that wasn't crushed under the Mako. Any geth that fired back merely hit the Mako's shields, barely doing any damage. Shepard, on the other hand, kept his eyes on the Armature that was now to the side of the Mako. The Armature barely moved unless it was charging a siege pulse. As soon as he saw it move, Shepard used the jumpjets to once again lift the Mako over the siege pulse. This close to the Armature, however, made the near hits much closer than before.

It was a minute of the Mako jumping to avoid getting hit when Shepard noticed that Wrex was now using the cannon on the Armature. _Good_, Shepard thought, _I was really getting nervous there_. He looked over at Tali who, while looking at the panels for the Mako's systems in front of her, still had a strong grip on whatever she could hold. _Apparently, so was she…_

Shepard had to use the jumpjets one more time before Wrex blew the Armature apart while saying, "Go down already."

As soon as they hit the ground, Shepard checked the radar and saw that the area was clear. He let out a 'whew' before turning his head towards Wrex and saying, "Nice shooting, Wrex."

From beside him, Shepard heard Tali breathe out and say, "Keelah… I've never been that close to one of those things before…"

Shepard looked at her and asked, "Are you ok?"

Tali just nodded her head and loosened her grip, saying, "Yes… I should be fine, Commander. I was just not really expecting that kind of fight."

Chuckling a bit, Shepard started to drive the Mako forward again before saying, "Neither did I. Thank God it worked."

Tali merely nodded as they drove on. Before long they arrived at what they thought was the ExoGeni building, if the geth dropship attached to the side of it was anything to go by. The group exited the Mako, parking it close to the doorway they walked through, and cleared the area of the few geth there. They stepped up onto a platform and looked for a way further into the building.

To their left, Shepard noticed a glow that wasn't coming from some fire the geth created. Motioning to the other two, they made their way towards the left side of the room. Once there, they found what appeared to be some kind of shield covering a large doorway.

"Typical geth deployment," Tali said as she got a good look at the shield, "We'll need another route in."

"Figures," Wrex muttered as they turned around to look for another way into the building. As they entered the main part of the platform, Shepard noticed a handrail type piece in the center of the platform. Walking around it, he noticed there wasn't any stairs, but on the inside of the curved handrail there appeared to be a drop that led down a level and headed inwards, possibly leading to some way into the building, if the whole area wasn't caved in.

Tali, next to him, looked down and noticed how far they would have to drop to get down, saying, "One way drop, Commander Shepard."

Looking around, Shepard said, "Well, unless you two see another way, this might be our best bet." When neither Wrex nor Tali spoke up, Shepard knelt down and dropped himself into the next level, landing in a crouch and pulling out his pistol, scanning the immediate area. Not seeing any geth, Shepard called down Tali and Wrex.

When they were all on the same level, they walked down the small hallway they found themselves in, coming into a large open area that seemed to have taken a lot of damage. Doing a quick scan, all three of them noticed a dead varren close by. As Shepard stepped close to see how it was killed, a mass effect round shot right past his head, followed closely by a voice saying, "Damnit". Bringing up their weapons on instinct, the group found a woman barely holding a pistol still while slowly coming out of her hiding place. Seeing who she shot at, she lowered her pistol, Shepard, Wrex and Tali doing the same, as she said, "I'm so sorry. I thought you were geth, or one of those varren."

Putting away his own pistol, Shepard held up a hand saying, "You're safe now. But what are you doing here, Ms…?"

Sighing, she said, "My names Elizabeth Baynham, Lizbeth for short." Shepard immediately thought of what Juliana had told him not two hours ago. _Thank God we found you_, thought Shepard. Lizbeth continued, "When everyone started running, I stayed behind to back up data. Stupid, I know. Next thing I knew, the geth ship latched on and the power went out. I was trapped. I tried to get out, but the way was blocked."

"We'll get you out soon, don't worry," Shepard said, "But we need to find out what the geth are after first."

"It's not the geth, it's the data they're after. They don't want anyone else getting access to the-" Lizbeth stopped there as a look of fear crossed her face at what she was saying.

"I'm here for the geth, Lizbeth. Its very important I find out what they are after," Shepard said, hoping to convince her to tell them what was going on.

Thinking about it for a second, Lizbeth said, "I'm not sure, but I think they're here for the Thorian."

"Thorian? What is that exactly?" Tali said, voicing the question in all their minds.

"Its an indigenous life-form. Exogeni was studying it," Lizbeth explained briefly.

"What else can you tell us? Do you know where we can find this Thorian?" Shepard asked, hoping to learn more about why the geth would be after the Thorian. He couldn't help but think that the name 'Thorian' sounded familiar to something, but couldn't place what. Either way, it had to be important.

Sounding nervous about saying anything else, she replied, "I – I might be able to help, but not with those geth crawling about everywhere. Look, we need to get out of here and past that energy field."

"Any suggestions?" Shepard couldn't help but say with a bit of sarcasm.

Lizbeth blushed a bit at that, saying, "Not exactly… but I think the geth ship is powering it. I've noticed the geth laying power cables everywhere. You could follow those cables, but there are geth all over the place. Luckily they don't seem interested in this area. That's why I've stayed out here."

Before Shepard could ask Lizbeth a couple more questions, Wrex suddenly spoke up, saying, "There may not be any geth, but there's definitely varren down here."

Looking behind him, Shepard saw that Wrex was now aiming his shotgun towards a pack of varren that was making their way closer towards them. "Shit," Shepard muttered, then turned to Lizbeth and said, "Get back and stay down." He quickly brought out his own shotgun, seeing Tali do the same, and turned towards the varren, who were now starting to charge towards them.

After several minutes of shotguns going off and biotic throws, the varren were finally dealt with. Shepard did one last check around the room before he turned back to Lizbeth and said, "Stay put while we go and open some doors. Don't leave until you're sure its safe." When she nodded, Shepard turned to Wrex and Tali and said, "Lets go. We need to put a stop to the geth."

"Oh, here," Lizbeth spoke up, handing over an ID card, "take my ID. It should get you past any locked doors." Handing it over, Lizbeth wished them luck as the armed group made its way to the only working door in the area, tucked away in the corner.

Almost as soon as they walked through the door, they heard a gruff voice shout, "Stupid machine! Access encrypted files!" Stopping for a moment, they all looked at each other right as Shepard held a finger to his lips and then motioned for them to follow him quietly. "No, I don't want to review protocol!" the voice shouted once again. If Shepard had to guess, it was a krogan, and it was coming from up the stairs they had found. Moving up said stairs, the team found a heavily armored krogan arguing with a VI.

"Damnit! Tell me what I want to know or I'll blow your virtual ass into actual dust!" the krogan shouted in rage.

But the VI merely said, "Please contact your supervisor for a Level Four Security exemption, or make an appointment wi-"

"Stupid machine!" the krogan shouted the first thing Shepard and the others heard when they went through the door. Seeing as he was distracted, Shepard turned to Tali and Wrex.

"Alright, Wrex, prep a Carnage shot. Tali, I want you to overload his shields and have your shotgun ready in case he manages to get too close," Shepard whispered to them while pulling out his own shotgun, "With any luck, we can catch him off guar-"

"If there is nothing else, please step aside. There is a queue forming behind you for use of this console."

_You've got to be kidding me,_ Shepard thought, seeing a now all too familiar look from Wrex and Tali again. A look that also said, _Twice in one day, really, Shepard?_

Shepard sighed for a brief moment before shouting, "Now!" and moved out of cover to the other side of the stairs and firing his own Carnage with Wrex at the now charging krogan. Both shots hit the krogan right as Tali managed to overload his shields, making the krogan stop in his charge. Before he could start moving forward again, Shepard used his biotics to throw the krogan back several feet. Taking point, Shepard ran towards the krogan with Wrex right behind him, firing their shotguns as soon as they were close enough for maximum effect. The krogan didn't last long after that.

As they made sure the area was clear, the VI spoke up, saying, "ExoGeni Corporation reminds all staff that the discharging of weapons while on company property is strickly forbidden."

"Tell that to the geth," Shepard muttered under his breath. Before anyone would say anything else though, the VI continued, "Welcome back, Research Assistant Elizabeth Baynham. What can I do for you?"

Looking around to make sure she hadn't followed them already, Shepard asked, "Ugh… How do you know I'm Lizbeth?"

"Your access card identifies you as Elizabeth Baynham. Is there something you require, Dr. Baynham?" the VI asked in its default cheerful tone.

Playing along, Shepard asked, "What was the previous user attempting to access?"

"Fetching Data," then after a pause, the VI said, "The previous user was attempting to access details on the study of Species 37, the Thorian."

_So they really are after the Thorian,_ Shepard thought. Out loud, he said, "Tell me everything you told the krogan."

"I was unable to provide the previous user with any relevant data," the VI explained, much to the relief of Shepard and his team. The less the krogan might have known about, the less Saren knew. The VI continued on, saying, "Aside from lacking proper access, there has been no new data available on Species 37. All sensors monitoring the observation post at Zhu's Hope have been inactive for several cycles."

That sentence got everyone's attention. "What does Zhu's Hope have to do with the Thorian?" Shepard asked.

"Species 37 is located within the substructure of the Zhu's Hope outpost," the VI said. It was statements like that one that Shepard wished these things had more emotional responses instead of the carefree one he and his team just heard.

This thing, this Thorian, was located in Zhu's Hope, where not only the colonists were, but so was the other members of his team. Was this why the colonists were acting so odd? Because they were hiding the Thorian? And how does Saren add into things?

They needed more answers, not more questions. "Tell me everything you know about the Thorian."

"The Thorian is a simple plant life-form that exhibits a sentient behavior uncommon with other flora. Through dispersion and the eventual inhalation of spores, it can affect and control other organisms, including humans."

As the VI continued to explain what it knew of the Thorian, Shepard's bad feeling over the whole situation continued to get worse and worse. "The Zhu's Hope control group has yielded interesting results. Before sensors went offline, almost 85% of all test subjects were infected."

"Are you saying ExoGeni _knew_ its people were getting infected?" Shepard asked in an unbelieving tone.

The VI merely said, "It was deemed necessary to assass the true potential of Species 37."

"That's why they were acting so strange," Wrex said, voicing exactly what Shepard was thinking. They were all infected by something that was controlling them. And if said something wanted to stay hidden and safe, it would have kept the colonists from saying anything. In the back of Shepard's mind, he could hear Ian trying to tell him something about what was going on back in the tunnels under Zhu's Hope.

Tali brought Shepard out of his thoughts by saying, "You should probably warn your pilot. He can inform the others."

"Good idea," Shepard said, raising his fingers to his ear communicator, "Joker. Come in Joker…"

* * *

_There is a reason why I decided to stop here. But I am not about to spoil that lil surprise. Hopefully you'll like it in the next chapter._

_I do want to thank the people who have fav'ed and followed this story. Tells me that someone out there is reading this and enjoying it. Thats always great to know for a writer. Hopefully I'll get more updates for you!_

_Until next time! God bless!_

_-halfbreed_


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